A photographer captures a fox in a Canadian city

YUKON :: CANADA

At nearly 2 am on a rainy summer evening in 2020, I made my way to downtown Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon territory, and placed my camera in a fox family’s den. I set up some lights and waited for the right shot, praying that the foxes’ curiosity wouldn’t spur them to steal my equipment. Eventually these two kits started playing by the entrance of their shelter and I clicked my remote shutter.

I was inspired to photograph these city foxes after one growled at me while I was walking my dog. I had never experienced aggression from them before, and I wondered if it was because I had come too close to their home. A couple of days later I found the many jagged entrances to their massive den under an abandoned building and started documenting their lives.

All my work is about encouraging people’s love of nature, but these photos proved to me that in order to protect wildlife, we must first recognize and cherish it. This shot in particular is a testament to how humans and wildlife coexist in Whitehorse, providing an example for how we could live in harmony with wildlife all over the world.