If the animal is indeed an Arctic fox, it is much farther south than it should be. Arctic foxes are not native to Oregon.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), in North America, they are only found in Canada and Alaska.
Arctic foxes have a long, white coat in the winter. It sheds to a shorter, gray, and bluish-brown coat in the summer. They are usually about three feet long and weigh around 12 pounds.
They live in tundra habitats, coastal areas, and ice floes. This makes the possible presence of an Arctic fox on a bridge in Portland even more baffling.
On October 12, the fox was brought to the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s Wildlife Care Center. It was a female that weighed six and a half pounds.
The staff said that the fox did not seem to be scared of people, which led them to believe she had escaped from captivity or was abandoned by her owners.
“After a few days of being on the loose, the female fox was desperate enough and approached a person for help, as it’s likely that humans have provided her food her whole life,” Ashley Lema, the manager of the Wildlife Care Center, said.
“Not only is she in the wrong habitat, but she just doesn’t have the skills necessary, like hunting, to survive in the wild.”
The fox was thin and dehydrated but was in overall good health. She will stay under the care of the Wildlife Care Center while the ODFW figures out the next steps.
