Fox Hunting Sequence 5 of 6

I watched this red fox all afternoon one January day as he wandered along listening for mice and voles under the snow. He could probably smell the rodents just fine, but their scents, drifting up through the snow, gave no precise clues for locating them. He locates them by sound.  Mice and voles have nests and tunnels underground, but they go out in the snow buried grass to get food. When they tunnel in the snow, they make plenty of noise for a fox to hear, even through two feet of fluffy snow. Of course, the rodents can hear things moving on top of the snow too, so when something crunches above them they run for their burrows or huddle quietly. Moving slowly, this fox caught the sound of a small rodent under the snow. He very carefully stepped closer, obviously trying to be quiet. Tipping his head from side to side seemed to help pinpoint the sound. The fox occasionally held his breath, with an intense, wide-eyed look indicating the seriousness of the hunt, but it still made me smile to watch him.