A wildlife photographer set out to photograph snowy owls on the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta, but wound up with stunning footage of a red fox hunting in a snow field.
From his car, Colton Lockridge noticed the red fox hunting a field. He waited to see its reaction. When it wandered off, he decided to set up his tripod and camera hidden in a snowbank and hoped it would return.
He was in luck. It did return.
“I would say I waited a solid hour before it even decided to come back in my direction,” Lockridge told SWNS. “After shooting a little bit, a car drove by and spooked it again, so I waited another while for it to come back in my direction.”
His patience paid off. At the 20-second mark, Lockridge captured the moment the fox succeeded in catching its prey, a vole.
After three hours of waiting and capturing footage of the red fox hunting, Colton decided to stop and just watch. The fox eventually disappeared into a thicket of trees as the sun sent down. He figured it had a 50 percent catch rate when diving into the snow.
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“Their hearing is just astounding as well; you could see it sneak into position and listen carefully,” he told SWNS.
“I also didn’t show how long the fox would sometimes listen for the rodent, but there were times it would stand and listen intently for 30 seconds to precisely hone in where its food was under the snow.”
But you can see the fox honing in during the minute-long video.