At a home in Japan’s San’in region, a fox has been quietly leaving moles it caught at the front door — behavior repeated seven times already this year, leaving residents baffled. An expert consulted for the story floated a theory: by placing its prey in a sunny spot, the fox may be drying it out, essentially turning it into a preserved food like dried fish. On 5ch, the thread lit up with trivia-style chatter comparing the behavior to the folktale “Gon, the Little Fox,” plus surprise at fox habitats and mole ecology — while plenty of posters also poked fun at the fact that a mole expert, not a fox expert, was the one interviewed.
A fox shows up carrying a “mole” in its mouth, drops it with a plop at the front door, and walks off… 7th fox sighting this year, mysterious behavior leaves residents baffled — expert’s surprising theory: “By leaving it in a sunny spot to turn it into a dried preserve, it may be trying to ‘cook’ it…”
Published Wed, 9/23, 6:00 AM
BSS San’in Broadcasting
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
This way…
Called it, and in reply #2 no less
Gon… (the fox from the folktale "Gon, the Little Fox")
Written in kanji (土竜, literally "earth dragon"), it sounds absurdly strong.
Like, "The Earth Dragon is the weakest of the four elemental dragons…"
that kind of vibe, right?
Foxes have their surprising sides too, huh.
They're everywhere.
There's even land in Tokyo — basically every green patch visible in aerial photos — where foxes have been spotted and confirmed to be living there.
Just the other day there was a news story about one turning up in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
Same here, also in Kyushu, and I've never seen a fox… though I do see badgers and weasels.
Looks like opinions are split between the "bring money" camp and the "come as a cute fox-eared girl" camp.
You're mashing two different stories together lol
Maybe this fox is apologizing to the homeowner too…
Huh, now that you mention it, that's true
Everyone misremembers it, so it'd make a good quiz question.
People mix it up with "Buying Mittens" (another famous story by the same author, Nankichi Niimi).
Had no idea.
Didn't want to get bitten, so I made a scoop out of cardboard and picked it up, and it suddenly sprayed feces and urine everywhere
I don't remember it smelling bad, but thinking about it now, maybe that's some kind of skunk-style defense move?
They live underground, so why are they that fluffy?
Apparently their fur is so dense that dirt practically brushes right off.
Saw one at a factory under construction on a newly cleared vacant lot (Tottori Prefecture).
Outside city areas you can spot one now and then.
If your hobbies include fishing or nature photography, odds are pretty high you'll run into one.
Back when playing outside was just normal, seeing one was an everyday thing.
One time it was a sparrow, and the owner thought it was dead, picked it up, and put it outside the back door — apparently it snapped out of it and flew away.
Some dogs do that too
We used to have a Japanese mixed-breed dog, and if you let it loose in the yard it would catch all sorts of things
Moles, mice, snakes, lizards, pigeons, frogs, rabbits, you name it
It was just catching them to play — once they stopped moving, it just left them there.
Has to be a joke lol
A fox expert probably couldn't have come up with as funny a line as the mole guy did.
I've caught a mole in my yard before, and it didn't smell like poop to me
Guess it depends on the species or the location?
Say that after you've actually eaten one.
Sounds like a fox is posting in here.
Apparently touching moles is risky
They carry a lot of parasites.
Whether it's bugs or animals, the carnivorous ones tend to be loaded with parasites and germs, so you can't eat them.
Though foxes, crows, and cats all seem to eat them just fine.
Background and Talking Points
Canids like foxes are known to practice “food caching” — stashing surplus prey in a fixed spot to eat later — and the expert’s “dried preserve” theory in this story can be understood as an extension of that behavior. The thread brought up the folktale “Gon, the Little Fox,” but as several posters noted, the story’s theme isn’t gratitude but atonement for a past prank — a point often confused with another famous Nankichi Niimi work, “Buying Mittens.” The fact that a mole researcher, rather than a fox specialist, fielded questions about fox behavior also became a running joke in the thread, but this is likely less a gag and more standard reporting practice: when covering an animal outside a given expert’s specialty, journalists routinely check with a researcher in the relevant field. As for whether moles smell bad or carry parasites, there’s probably room for individual and regional variation, so it’s worth noting that a few anecdotal comments in the thread shouldn’t be taken as a general rule.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “A fox shows up carrying a “mole” in its mouth, drops it with a plop at the front door, and walks off… 7th sighting this year, expert: “By leaving it in a sunny spot to turn it into a dried preserve…”“
