Popular Foxes Make Home On Local Beach

OCEAN GROVE-Over the past few weeks, a new but uncommon beachfront resident and her kids have been seen on the beaches of Asbury Park and neighboring Ocean Grove.

A female red fox and her kits (what baby foxes are called) have made a home for themselves in the remains of a 2019 structure fire near the Asbury Park/Ocean Grove border.

According to Ross Licatra, executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA, seeing foxes on the beachfront is actually quite common.

“It’s an ideal location,” Licatra says. “Foxes will only rest where there is an abundant food supply (of small birds, mice, and other rodents). Foxes do a good job of keeping the rodent population down.”

Local Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit pages have been full of photos of the popular family, and Licatra says it's ok to take photos from far away. Still, he stresses that no one should actually get up close to the mother fox, especially her kits.

“Foxes will generally keep their distance from people, but the mother fox will view it as a threat if someone approaches,” Licatra says.

Licatra also says that people shouldn’t feed the foxes as the foxes will get used to human food and humans as a whole.

“We want the foxes to coexist with humans without interference,” Licatra says.

As for if the fox family will be sticking around, Licatra feels that the foxes have already been around for a while, and since it's a good location for them, they will most likely stick around.

“I think that the foxes have always been there, and the kits are comfortable where they are and like where they are.