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Second fox bite in two weeks in the Catalina Mountains

Posted at 6:10 PM, May 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-23 23:02:31-04

A fox bit another camper on May 19 in the Catalina Mountains, this time in the Wilderness of Rocks area. 

This is the second fox bite in two weeks in that mountain range according to Mark Hart with Arizona Game and Fish. 

Hart said that this bite happened at the intersection of Lemon Rock Trail and Wilderness of Rocks Trail.

On May 7, Arizona Game and Fish closed Rose Canyon Lake after a possibly rabid fox bit a 12-year-old boy. 

In the recent incident on May 19, a young man woke up to a fox sniffing his sleeping bag around 2 a.m. The boy kicked the fox and the fox bit the boy. 

The young man said it was a gray fox which is the same species in the previous incident. 

Mark Hart said there is no way to know if the same fox was involved in both incidents or if it was two different foxes.

"If the fox that actually caused us to close Rose Canyon had rabies it should be dead now," Hart said.

There is no way to know if an animal is rabid until the animal is dead and you can inspect the brain. 

Hart stresses that fox bites are rare and they have to assume the worst because biting is extreme aggression for a fox. 

The man in the May 19th incident was seeking medical attention, but his condition was not known at this time.

Campers are encouraged to be very cautious when camping especially around foxes, bats, and skunks who are the primary carriers of rabies.