News

Amazing trailcam video of hairless fox at Haywood Knolls

A hairless fox caught on a trail cam in Haywood Knolls. [SOURCE: YouTube video by Thomas Brass]

By Bill Moss, Published: August 31, 2014

When Thomas Brass moved to Haywood Knolls, he figured the high wooded ridge was home to lots of interesting critters. Brass and his wife relocated to the area about three years ago from Minnesota and moved to the neighborhood off N.C. 191 a year ago.
He knows a lot about wild animals and their habits from his days growing up when he trapped with his dad. Although he lost his taste for trapping game, he still loved animals. He has shot wildlife and nature photography.
His cul de sac high up in Haywood Knolls is surprisingly remote. "Between the homes and a ridge, there's two acres of woods and then it runs into hundreds of acres of unhoused area," he said. He cleared brush and raked out a trail for the wildlife.
"The animals love it when you make a trail," he said. "An animal will always take the path of least resistance."
He bought a Browning BTC 3 Trail Spec Ops Camera — the kind hunters often use.
Brass, who runs a Christian counseling service out of his home, is not interested in shooting prey. He just delights in seeing it.
He's seen red fox and gray fox. His trail cam recently filmed a hairless fox called a Samson fox. Some research said a fox with mange could be mistaken for a hairless fox. Brass had heard that, too, but said his hairless fox is the real thing.
"I showed it to my vet," he said. "Mange looks a lot different. It's patches all over the place and they don't live long when they get it."
The veterinarian's verdict was that the grayish fox was indeed a hairless fox.
"The hairless fox, they do have hair, they just don't have the guard hairs, which is the long hair," Brass said.
The fox in his video sniffs around and eats something off the ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiqCOzX7vWw
Brass uses an attractant — it smells like a skunk — and gets meat scraps from his butcher as bait for the animals.
He's uploaded videos on YouTube of a white squirrel cavorting with a gray squirrel, a bobcat at night and a coyote hunting by a creek.
He recently got film of a mother deer with two fawn.
"They were late births," he said. "They just showed up last week. We've got grey fox and red fox, and even a fisher. They call them fisher cats in the South. They look just like a big mink."