Fox Mounts by Reimond Grignon
The Red Fox is one of the most beautiful animals in the world. The male is a very handsome animal. His head is a more blocky than the females. I used to trap quite a few of these when I was much younger.
These red fox pups were mounted from a scene I remembered when as a boy I discovered a fox den. I sat for hours and watched the little critters play at the den entrance. I always hoped to see the mother bringing food to her pups but never did.
Red Fox are common carriers of Rabies and should never be handled when approached. Red Fox are very wary and would never approach a human unless they were sick. When a wild animal seems friendly, that is the time to beware!
These beautiful Arctic Foxes are a native of Alaska. They are a small chunky, short legged fox having small rounded ears. They change colors with the seasons being gray brown in the summer and pure white in the winter.
They grown long white fur at this time and look like mine polar bears! The arctic fox is the only canard, or dog like animal, in the world that goes through a seasonal color change! They weight about ten pounds, stand about one foot high and are about thirty inches long.
These mounts are on display at our museum. These are Taxidermy Competition Winners.
The Willow Ptarmigan is the natural food source of the arctic fox. These beautiful birds turn color as the seasons progress. In the summer they are a beautiful blend of brown getting more mottled white in the fall until turning completely white during the winter. These birds are very common both in Alaska and all over northern Canada. They seem to be found just about anywhere that there are Caribou. The birds make a truly outstanding mount as shown in the picture. Lots of Caribou hunters bring these birds back from Canada with them to have the birds mounted.
This beautiful fox mount is a color phase of the Red fox. It is a Red Fox, but a trapper would call this one a Cross-Fox. There are other color phases also such as the Silver Fox, which again is a red fox. The average red fox weights in at just 10 pounds. They have long silky fur which makes the animals look larger than they really are. They average just under thirty inches long not counting the tail which is another 13 to 16 inches. The animals are built for running. They can run run 30 miles an hour easily and have been clocked at up to 45 miles an hour. Always moving, they usually trot 6 miles an hour and they can keep up this this up forever.
Red Fox frequent farmlands and meadows that are bordered by woods where
they find there favorite food which is mice. They hone in on their prey
by hearing it squeak or rustle in the grass, and when pinpointed the fox
leaps in an arc and pins the mouse to the ground with its forefeet, then
biting down on the mouse killing it. They are fun and very amusing to
watch. During the summer foxes will eat lots of insects of all types,
but mostly grasshoppers, crickets and beetles. Fox also will eat birds
and other small animals they happen across. Good hunters, they can catch
many small game animals such as the snowshoe rabbit. The red fox is an
opportunist and will take whatever comes along.
I like to put as much expression into the faces of his mounts as possible as shown by the close up picture of the fox to the right. All the pictures on this page, in fact all the pictures in these museum pages, are pictures of my mounts. They are not pictures of live animals, sometimes people call me and tell me my mounted animal pictures are live animal shots. It can be hard to tell because I try to make the mounts look completely life like. I also take many of my mounts outdoors to take pictures of them.
The red fox is one of the most beautiful animals in the world. Their long silky orange fur is wonderful.
The fox pictured here is a silver fox mount I mounted for my
small museum. It's a World Competition Winner.
This fox was caught in Dixmont, Maine. It is a perfect example of a silver fox, which as stated above is just a color phase of the red fox. Some people wonder why some years a few silver fox are seen where as in other years none are seen. Silver fox are always "rare".
During years when there are lots of fox around. The female red fox will kill any off colored pups she has. When foxes are scarce, as after a rabies epidemic. Then the female red fox will let these off colored offspring live. This is why silver fox are usually seen during years when there are not many fox to be seen.
Grey Fox mounts by Reimond Grignon
The picture here is of two Grey Foxes. These foxes are now in Maine and trappers are beginning to catch quite a few of them.
They are slightly smaller than a red fox but these greys when they move into an area will drive the red foxes out.
The grey fox is quite agile and will climb up into trees especially leaning trees to lie in wait for other food animals to pass by.
Grey fox are multiplying very fast in Maine. Taking over much territory from the Red Fox which is their arch enemy. They are a very beautiful animal!
