Signal Hill fox mother, pups caught by Parks Canada staff

Parks Canada staff in St. John's caught a mother fox and her kits overnight Tuesday in ongoing efforts to remove the foxes from Signal Hill because people are feeding them.

Parks Canada manager Glenn Keough said staff caught the foxes near the Cabot Tower parking lot early Wednesday morning.

The mother fox was injured, but Keough said that didn't stop her from killing rabbits and voles to feed her young — a good sign the animals will adjust to a life in the wild.

He said it's important for people to understand the risk of constantly feeding the foxes.

"The first thing they're learning is how to be comfortable around humans and how to accept food from humans, so that was a large part [of the problem]," said Keough.

"They were also being fed by food that people were leaving. But we think — we hope, anyway — that we've got them early enough now that they'll be able to really acclimate themselves to kind of a wild existence again."

He said workers believe there is at least one more fox left on the hill.

Parks Canada may divert traffic again in future in an attempt to capture the last of them to release them in the wild.

Keough added all the foxes are brought to a veterinarian for an exam before being released.