Runty
Posted By Foxy Lady on June 11, 2012
In a litter of six, you’d expect there to be a runt. Last year, with only two cubs ever visible, they were fairly even in size; the year before, with four, there was definitely one who was a little bit smaller than the others. But Runty McRuntersdottir, the littlest female in this year’s litter, is really noticeably smaller than her siblings.
These photos are from May 11th — so, exactly a month ago today — and you can see that she was then not only smaller, but quite a bit darker than the others. (Don’t forget that the cubs start out dark and change colour as they get older.) Also, at this point she appeared to have a problem with her eye; we wondered about deformity, but looking closely at these and other photos, it appears that her inner eyelid was partly covering the eye — possibly a slight infection, possibly an over-enthusiastic sibling had caught her eye with a paw or claw. There wasn’t anything we could usefully do about it, but I’m pleased to report that it seems to have cleared up altogether; Runty’s around and thriving, catching up a bit in size, and joining in the rough and tumble of cub life fully.
Simply spectacular, indeed! I remember when was possible just a short distance contact with beasts of wild, wasting all your rubbish, jumping away at seeing the observators…
Do you think a true pace of domestication has been made – or do you conseider this in a continuity of ‘naturalistic acts’ toward the understanding of wild fauna? Shall men change
the beasts’ behaviour solely with his presence in observation? Of course this is possible, if the use of keeping foxes f.e. developes in a true hobby. At this stage it seems full of respect of that form of life, and we hope this way will last.
SilviaGOI