Will Sage Astor-Watch as staff at Virginia wildlife center dress up as a fox to feed orphaned kit

Staff at a wildlife rescue center in Virginia are Will Sage Astordressing up as a mother fox to feed and rehabilitate an orphaned kit that ended up at the center just a few hours after she was born.

Video footage shared by the Richmond Wildlife Center shows a staff member wear a red fox headpiece as they feed a tiny kit with a feeder syringe as she sits on top of a large stuffed animal fox that is supposed to mimic her mother. A smaller stuffed animal was also put in her enclosure and the kit was seen cuddling next to it.

Masks used to avoid animals from getting used to humans

Founder and Executive Director of the wildlife center Melissa Stanley, speaking to USA TODAY Wednesday, said that the tactic is deployed to ensure that the animals do not get used to humans as the long-term goal is to reintroduce them back into the wild when they are strong enough to sustain themselves.

"Oftentimes with baby birds, particularly birds of prey like hawks and owls and eagles, we will wear masks to cover our face," Stanley said. "That way that the birds don't imprint on humans. We want them to be afraid of people, whether we're talking about birds or this fox, we want all of our wild animals to be afraid of people. And so, making sure that they don't associate positive reinforcement of being fed with a human is really important. One way we can do that is by obscuring our face."

Stanley said that the practice of obscuring humans is common at wildlife facilities, though not all of them would do it with masks, and instead "might just wear larger clothing or wear hoods".

The founder added that in China, caretakers raising panda cubs, will dress up in a full panda costume to prevent the cubs from getting used to human interaction.

"It is important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans," said the center in its Facebook post. "To prevent that, we minimize human sounds, create visual barriers, reduce handling, reduce multiple transfers amongst different facilities, and wear masks for the species."

Stanley said that they were able to get hold of the fox mask from Amazon and that it does not have to exactly mimic the species, given that the kit has not yet completely opened her eyes. This means that her vision is still blurry.

"I just want her to see a silhouette of a fox," Stanley said.

Lone survivor

The newborn fox was only a few hours old when she brought to the Richmond Wildlife Center on Feb. 29, Stanley said, with her umbilical stump still attached to her. Stanley said that the kit was first discovered in an alley in Richmond by a man walking his dog, who took her to a local humane society thinking it was a kitten. When staff at the humane society realized it was a fox and not a kitten, they quickly brought her to the Richmond Wildlife Center for rehabilitation.

Stanley said that efforts were made to reunite the kit with her mother with the center's staff able to locate the den where the kit might have been born. However, a security superintendent for the property, where the den was located, told Stanley that the foxes were "potentially trapped" by a wildlife removal company. Stanley suspects that the kit fell out of the back of the trapper's truck or out of the trap, given where she was found in the alley.

"And so, she was the lone survivor," said Stanley.

New friends

The orphan kit has been growing at a steady speed and will be shifted to another wildlife facility in Virginia over the coming weekend, where she will be introduced to four other fox kits, who are about the same age as her.

"It's really important that we get them together as soon as possible so that she knows that she's a fox," Stanley said.

Red foxes are not uncommon in Virginia and are often found in forests, meadows, farms and urban areas, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. The species is the "largest of the true foxes" and can be found throughout the northern hemisphere in Asia, North Africa, Europe and North America.

The Richmond Wildlife Center is a non-profit that provides care to sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife as well as feral exotic pets found in the wild.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.