CATAWBA ISLAND, Ohio — It was an unusual winter, with very little ice formation on Lake Erie, and consequently, the rescues of fishermen stranded on ice floes were not a regular part of the news cycle.
Personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Ottawa County Sheriff's office, and the Ohio Division of Wildlife were not called on as in years past to regularly don their survival gear, start up the helicopters and hovercraft, and bring some cold and sometimes wet anglers back to the mainland.
But that does not mean that all was quiet along the lakeshore this winter. Early in January, Ohio Division of Wildlife investigator Brian Bury from the Lake Erie Unit and Ottawa County state wildlife officer Reid Van Cleve were both on patrol in the area of this peninsula that juts out into the lake.
There were chunks of ice, large and small, being pushed away from the shore by the wind and breaking up when Van Cleve noticed a red fox marooned on an ice floe that was moving out into the open water. Aware that the small animal would likely perish when it tried to swim to shore in the cold water, Van Cleve contacted Bury to discuss a plan of action to assist the animal.
“The ice was flowing north and quickly breaking apart,” Bury said. “It was clear there was no way the fox could make it to shore and likely was going to drown.”
Bury retrieved his patrol boat and met Van Cleve at a Catawba launch site. Equipped with the survival suits that they carry throughout the cold weather months, the duo had to steer their boat through the ice packs around Catawba, but eventually, they were unable to move any closer to the location where the fox had been sighted, due to the increased risk of damaging the boat.
They moved to a different ramp and were able to break through the ice floes and get closer to the last known location of the fox.
“We were driving through a big ice floe, breaking the ice as we went,” Bury said. “At first, we couldn’t find the fox because it was laying down on the ice. Once we got closer, the fox stood up and eventually began running away from us.”
The frightened fox then jumped off of the ice floe and into the frigid lake water as its instincts to move away from a perceived threat overpowered any trepidation about the hazards the icy water presented. The Good Samaritan wildlife officers were able to use a catch pole to retrieve the fox from the water, and it was placed in a pet carrier for the return trip to shore.
“The fox was wet and very cold so we covered the pet carrier with the boat cover so that it would not freeze to death on the way back to the boat ramp, which was about three miles away,” Bury said.
The fox was taken to Back To The Wild, a licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility near Castalia, for evaluation.
“We figured it could use a warm bed and a couple of free meals,” Bury said. Following a few days of rest and recovery after its icy ordeal, the fox was released near the area where it had ventured out onto the ice.
Bury said knowing that the stranded fox will have a chance to live out its life in the wild is the best ending he could ask for in this adventure, which demonstrated once again that each day presents wildlife officers with a wide range of tasks and unexpected challenges.
“I've been involved in a lot of wildlife rescue attempts over my 20-year career, but this one stands out as the most difficult, the most dangerous, and also the most rewarding,” Bury said, “because that red fox had very little chance at survival if Reid hadn’t seen him floating off on that piece of ice.”
He added that teamwork, familiarity with the conditions, and the proper safety measures made the ice rescue possible.
“I wouldn’t have attempted that with most other people, but Reid and I have the right safety equipment, experience boating in ice, and maybe we’re a little crazy, but not going after that fox wasn’t even a consideration,” Bury said.
The red fox is native to Ohio and Michigan, as is its cousin the gray fox. The red fox is usually identified by its ruddy or rusty-colored coat and white framing around its mouth and neck. Its legs are darker, nearly black, and its thick, bushy tail sports a mix of red, white, and black strands, with a black tip.
Red foxes have a normal home range of a couple of miles or less, where they search for their most common food sources – mice, groundhogs, rats, birds, and fruit. Although they do not hibernate, red foxes will hunker down in a den or protected area during the worst winter weather. They are primarily nocturnal, but will also be observed hunting during the daytime.
These foxes are from the same family — Canidae — as coyotes, wolves, and our domesticated dogs.
First Published March 25, 2023, 1:30 p.m.
