No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. South Bay is actually home to a little red fox population

Photos posted on social media of red foxes perched on walls in San Pedro and feasting on fish in Redondo Beach as recently as last week are surprising to some people. But residents and experts say that although these foxes aren’t native to Southern California, they’ve become a mainstay of the South Bay.

Red foxes of South Bay.

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Courtesy Karen Schuenemann

)

They’re not native, so how’d they get here?

Red foxes were introduced to the Orange County area in the early 1900s after they were brought from the East Coast for hunting and to populate approximately 125 farms throughout the state that bred the animals for their fur. When the farms went out of business, the foxes either escaped or were released into the wild, establishing the current population in the Southland, according to Miguel Ordeñana, senior manager of community science at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The foxes have thrived ever since, in large part because they’re adaptable.

“They also have a wide dietary breadth so that they're not only limited to prey,” said Ordeñana. “Because of the fox's small body size, they can make a den out of a lot of places.”

They also aren’t territorial and stay mostly hidden by day in thick habitats, like lemonade berry plants.

Red foxes of the South Bay.

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Courtesy Karen Schuenemann

)

So how many foxes live in the South Bay?

In the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the red fox coexists with a small population of the gray fox, which is actually native to the area. Cris Sarabia, conservation director at the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, said there are no exact numbers for the fox population on the peninsula, but “the numbers are very low.”

Red foxes of South Bay.

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Courtesy Karen Schuenemann

)

Over the years the population size has shifted due to drought conditions and the increase in predator populations, like the coyote in other parts of the Southland.

“Coyotes are a dominant species and will actively kill red foxes,” Oredñana said. “The natural expansion of coyotes and of the range has allowed at least some kind of control of red foxes.”

Interacting with the red foxes

Karen Schuenemann has been photographing the red foxes of the South Bay for more than 15 years. She first encountered a red fox in 2006 and then discovered a den on the cliffs of San Pedro. She has been photographing the foxes ever since.

“In San Pedro, they're along the coast there, and they've just adapted, so they frequently will be denning near the cliffs,” she said.

Red foxes of South Bay.

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Courtesy Karen Schuenemann

)

But experts said that as cute as the red foxes are, people should avoid feeding or interacting with them.

“They need to stay wild and we want them to continue to stay wild,” Sarabia said. “We don't want them to lose that fear of humans because that's when problems start to occur.”