Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and to
Speaker 1: day I would be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April
Speaker 1: May twenty twenty six. As reminder, Radio Eye is a
Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
Speaker 1: Please join me now for the first article titled follow
Speaker 1: in the Footsteps of the Founders and have a drink.
Speaker 1: Where they planned the revolution over a few beers. Taverns,
Speaker 1: public houses, and inns served as meeting places before the
Speaker 1: war and unofficial headquarters during it. Some still stand, including
Speaker 1: these nine where you can raise a glass and Memory
Speaker 1: of the Founders by Noah Letterman. We held our meetings
Speaker 1: at the Green Dragon Tavern, Paul Revere wrote in a
Speaker 1: letter Careful that our meetings should be kept secret. Soon
Speaker 1: to be Founding fathers and other patriots, like Revere, found
Speaker 1: great value in the American public house was a place
Speaker 1: to trade stories, to learn of critical world events, and
Speaker 1: to strategize. They railed against British tyranny, plotted protests against
Speaker 1: loathsome policy, and read aloud from Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Speaker 1: or from the Declaration of Independence while sipping Toddies at taverns,
Speaker 1: militia's recruited soldiers, held military tribunals, stored military supplies and rations,
Speaker 1: and hosted patriot groups like the Sons of Liberty. Most
Speaker 1: taverners supported these gatherings at their establishments because they often
Speaker 1: felt the crushing British tariffs on raw ingredients for spirits
Speaker 1: or on printed goods like playing cards. Revolution would be
Speaker 1: a boon for business. Today, most colonial era taverns are gone,
Speaker 1: but as our country turns two hundred and fifty, a
Speaker 1: few stalwart pubs remain, holding the hopes and stories of
Speaker 1: the revolutionary Americans who fought to form a democratic nation.
Speaker 1: As we celebrate America's independents, consider lifting a foggy beer
Speaker 1: stein at one of these taverns. Right Tavern, Concord, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: In October seventeen seventy four, the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress
Speaker 1: met in Concord. Samuel Adams and John Hancock began the
Speaker 1: process of separating the thirteen colonies from Britain, made plans
Speaker 1: to redirect the people's taxes from the crown to the
Speaker 1: provincial Congress, and established the idea that the government's power
Speaker 1: came from the will of the people during and after
Speaker 1: the meeting. Some reportedly went right next door to mister
Speaker 1: Taylor's tavern now Write Tavern, to celebrate these bold steps
Speaker 1: by getting sloshed. On April nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, in
Speaker 1: the wee hours of the morning, having been warned of
Speaker 1: approaching Redcoats, colonial militia men gathered at the tavern to
Speaker 1: plan their maneuvers and then left, ending up in the
Speaker 1: nearby hills. Later that morning, seven hundred British regulars rode
Speaker 1: into Concord to capture the colonist's stockpiled weapons. The Red
Speaker 1: Coats then commandeered Wright Tavern as their headquarters. Today, a
Speaker 1: replica of a line engraving by the colonial artisan Amos Doolittle,
Speaker 1: hanging just inside the entrance depicts the British gathering before
Speaker 1: the tavern. When the Red Coats met the militiamen at
Speaker 1: the North Bridge, about a mile down the road, both
Speaker 1: sides fired, resulting in the first casualties for the Crown.
Speaker 1: Six decades later, Concordinative Ralph Waldo Emerson would refer to
Speaker 1: the instigation of that skirmish as the shot heard round
Speaker 1: the world. By seventeen ninety three right tavern had ceased operations,
Speaker 1: and over the next two centuries the building had dozens
Speaker 1: of other uses. It was a bakery, a whig manufacturer,
Speaker 1: and a kindergarten where one hundred and ninety five kids
Speaker 1: signed the eighteen sixty four Little People's Petition to President
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln calling for enslaved children to be freed. Today,
Speaker 1: it is a museum open to the public Fridays through
Speaker 1: Sundays and also hosts private events. In the fall, tavern
Speaker 1: service will return so that visitors can enjoy colonial era
Speaker 1: drinks like stone fences, rum or rye mixed with applejack
Speaker 1: and hard cider, and flip a rum cocktail made with molasses,
Speaker 1: spices and a raw egg that was once cooked into
Speaker 1: a froth with a hot poker from the fireplace. Wright
Speaker 1: no longer uses the hot poker France's Tavern, New York City.
Speaker 1: Many of the original gray yellow bricks of France's tavern
Speaker 1: hold firm with their original eighteenth century oyster shell mortar
Speaker 1: along Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. When Samuel Francis purchased
Speaker 1: the tavern in seventeen sixty two, he marked his establishment
Speaker 1: with the sign bearing Queen Charlotte's lightness, and the public
Speaker 1: called it the Queen's Head Tavern, but inside was despised.
Speaker 1: During the seventeen seventies, the Sons of Liberty met at
Speaker 1: France's to plot out New York's tea Party protests, Adams
Speaker 1: and Hancock visited to devour oysters, and the New York
Speaker 1: Provincial Congress used Frances to host meetings and one court martial,
Speaker 1: as well as parties, including a barn burner on June eighteenth,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, with George Washington in attendance. They made
Speaker 1: thirty one toasts, drank one hundred and nine bottles of wine,
Speaker 1: and paid ninety one pounds equal to around twenty six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars today, plus sixteen additional shillings for broken wine glasses.
Speaker 1: It was also the site of perhaps the biggest party
Speaker 1: to celebrate Evacuation Day November twenty fifth, seventeen eighty three,
Speaker 1: when the British left New York City after more than
Speaker 1: seven years, marking the end of the war in the
Speaker 1: birth of a Nation. That evening, New York's Governor George
Speaker 1: Clinton gave a public dinner at France's tavern. General Washington
Speaker 1: joined in thirteen toasts to the new Nation, to lost heroes,
Speaker 1: to America's future as an asylum, to the persecuted of
Speaker 1: the earth, and to the hope that this day will
Speaker 1: be a lesson to princes. Nine days later, France's tavern
Speaker 1: hosted a more lacrymose occasion. The Patriot spy master Benjamin
Speaker 1: Talmadge recalled the lamentations that followed Washington as the latter
Speaker 1: left New York to return to Mount vernon such a
Speaker 1: scene of sorrow and weeping I had never before witnessed,
Speaker 1: and fondly hope I may never be called to witness again.
Speaker 1: To day, visitors to France's tavern can toast like Washington
Speaker 1: with the punch cocktail of rum and whisky flavored with peach,
Speaker 1: tea and lemon juice, a nod to a time when
Speaker 1: fresh ingredients were rare. Ye Old Centerton in Pittsgrove, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: Brian Good and his wife Joe Anne where chefs who
Speaker 1: had worked at some of New York City's most famous restaurants,
Speaker 1: including Le Bernardine and Jean George, respectively, But when the
Speaker 1: Twin Towers fell in two thousand one, they sought a
Speaker 1: new start outside the city and moved to the town
Speaker 1: of Elmer, in one of the most rural parts of
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and in two thousand three bought ye old
Speaker 1: Centerton Inn in nearby Pittsgrove. Built in seventeen o six,
Speaker 1: the two story inn was a stop on the stage
Speaker 1: coach route from Bridgeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia, where travelers
Speaker 1: came for pints and a bed. Based on an eighteen
Speaker 1: o three deed, we can determine that the original eighteenth
Speaker 1: century rooms comprised the bar area, the dining room behind it,
Speaker 1: and the second story. The inn may have held munitions
Speaker 1: for the Continental Army. Brian Good recounts the legend that
Speaker 1: Patriot militiamen once killed two loyalists here and buried the
Speaker 1: bodies under the fireplace, but there's no way to substantiate things.
Speaker 1: He laments Middleton Tavern, Annapolis, Maryland. Traveling from Virginia to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was arduous in the seventeen hundreds, but meetings of
Speaker 1: the Continental Congress in the North required Southern delegates to
Speaker 1: leave their plantations and make the long journey to trim
Speaker 1: many hours and miles off the ride. Horatio Middleton's ferry
Speaker 1: out of Annapolis, Maryland, offered a short cut across the
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Bay. While Middleton claimed in an ad in the
Speaker 1: Maryland Gazette that he keeps the best entertainment as good
Speaker 1: boats and hands as any that crossed the bay. Boats
Speaker 1: crossing the bay weren't so reliable. One ferry carrying George
Speaker 1: Washington ran aground twice, nearly costing the president his life.
Speaker 1: Another boat got stuck while ferrying Tench Tillman, one of
Speaker 1: Washington's aide de camp, while he carried surrendered documents from
Speaker 1: British General Charles Cornwallis north to Philadelphia. As a ferry owner,
Speaker 1: Middleton needed a tavern where customers could gamble and drink
Speaker 1: while waiting for passage. In seventeen fifty, Middleton purchased a
Speaker 1: sturdy building erected on a stone foundation with brick walls
Speaker 1: and oyster shell grout. The construction helped the tavern survive
Speaker 1: a nineteen thirty eight hurricane and two fires in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. In November seventeen eighty three, Annapolis became the
Speaker 1: nation's capital for the better part of a year, and
Speaker 1: the tavern would have been busy with associates of Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker 1: one of whom once requested that debtors meet him at
Speaker 1: the tavern to make speedy payment. Middleton's bustled with members
Speaker 1: of the Maryland Jockey Club, the Freemasons, and the Tuesday Club,
Speaker 1: a social organization comprising the city's self styled elite, such
Speaker 1: as Middleton's son Samuel. According to Tuesday Club records, raucous
Speaker 1: members visited Middleton's to sing, dance, brisk jigs, play music,
Speaker 1: and drink good rack, punch and claret. Today, guests can
Speaker 1: eat like colonists, enjoying daily rockfish offerings and oyster shooters,
Speaker 1: served with cocktail, sauce and Natty Beau beer, a Maryland
Speaker 1: favorite dating back to the first Cleveland administration. Whitehorse Tavern, Newport,
Speaker 1: Rhode Island, built in sixteen fifty two, This tavern served
Speaker 1: in its early days as the meeting place for the
Speaker 1: Rhode Island Colony's General Assembly, as well as the city
Speaker 1: Council and the Criminal Court. By seventeen o two, William
Speaker 1: Mays Junior, a notorious pirate who'd proud the Indian Ocean,
Speaker 1: succeeded his father as innkeeper and received a license to
Speaker 1: sell all sorts of strong drink. Six years later, the
Speaker 1: businessman's lunch was supposedly invented there, as councilors began dining
Speaker 1: at the tavern and charging meals to the public treasury.
Speaker 1: By seventeen thirty, new owners trotted out the tavern's new sign,
Speaker 1: an image of a white horse. During the war, in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, the owners left Newport when British troops
Speaker 1: and Loyalist allies turned the white Horse into their accommodations. Today,
Speaker 1: you won't see much of a rabble at the White Horse.
Speaker 1: It's now an establishment for Newport's upper crust. Red Fox
Speaker 1: Inn and Tavern. Middleburg, Virginia. In seventeen twenty eight, using
Speaker 1: local fieldstone, Joseph Chen built Chen's Ordinary, a tavern in Middleburg,
Speaker 1: midway between bustling Alexandria and Winchester on the Ashby Gap
Speaker 1: trading route. Being dead center gave rise to the town's
Speaker 1: name Middleburg when it was chartered in seventeen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: George Washington was Chen's cousin, and when the first President
Speaker 1: rolled through town to visit family, he might have stayed
Speaker 1: at the inn, or at least had a drink. There
Speaker 1: Chen's Ordinary became the Beverage House in eighteen twelve. In
Speaker 1: the Civil War, it served as a Confederate hospital during
Speaker 1: the eighteen sixty three Gettysburg Campaign and the headquarters for
Speaker 1: General J. E. B. Stewart, who hatched battle plans upstairs.
Speaker 1: To day, visible square nail heads in non uniform with
Speaker 1: floorboards appeared consistent with eighteen hundreds design. In nineteen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: the property was revamped and expanded to become the Red
Speaker 1: Fox Inn, a more luxurious property surrounding the original tavern,
Speaker 1: which became popular with the Kennedys. Jackie Kennedy Onassis frequented
Speaker 1: the inn during her fox hunting outings. Griswold Inn, Essex, Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Beneath a domed ceiling made of horsehair and crushed clam shells,
Speaker 1: the Griswold Inns Tavern boasts a large and handsome collection
Speaker 1: of maritime art. In the other rooms, there's an antique
Speaker 1: firearm collection and a rich history of chaos and gaiety.
Speaker 1: The tavern room began as a schoolhouse in seventeen thirty five,
Speaker 1: but graduated to become a tavern in eighteen oh one,
Speaker 1: though not before townspeople watched the building roll down Main
Speaker 1: Street on logs pulled by a team of oxen to
Speaker 1: the tavern's current location. Owners maintain that the Griswald Inn
Speaker 1: has been in continuous operation since seventeen seventy six. Although
Speaker 1: none of the famed Revolutionary rabble rousers are known to
Speaker 1: have visited the Griswold Inn, the tavern does have a
Speaker 1: musket that had in its barrel a note from a
Speaker 1: father to his son encouraging Junior to take up arms
Speaker 1: and join ye ranks of Ye Washington. The Griswald Inn
Speaker 1: was commandeered by the British during the eighteen fourteen raid
Speaker 1: on Essex, a site of Temperance Movement protests, the banners
Speaker 1: still hang inside. It was also where Frederick Law Olmsted
Speaker 1: as rumored to have celebrated his commission to design Central Park.
Speaker 1: Pirates House, Savannah, Georgia. The Pirates House consists of a
Speaker 1: number of conjoined historical buildings, including the Herb House, which
Speaker 1: is considered the oldest standing structure in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: Built in seventeen thirty four on the site of the
Speaker 1: Trustees' Garden, the first public experimental garden in the colonies
Speaker 1: where colonists grew cotton and peaches. The herb House served
Speaker 1: as the gardener's accommodations. The Pirate's House started operating as
Speaker 1: a tavern in seventeen fifty three, its haint blue shutters
Speaker 1: and doors ostensibly ward off ghosts. In the mid seventeen hundreds,
Speaker 1: legends tell pirates began using tunnels under the tavern to
Speaker 1: kidnap unwary and bibers, including per one legend, a local constable.
Speaker 1: Pirate associations continued in the next century, It said Scottish
Speaker 1: writer Robert Louis Stevenson's visit to the Pirate's House helped
Speaker 1: inspire his eighteen eighty three novel Treasure Island. Pages from
Speaker 1: an early edition of the novel are on display in
Speaker 1: a tavern chamber known as the Treasure Room. And Finally,
Speaker 1: A Man Full of Trouble Philadelphia. During the mid twentieth century,
Speaker 1: many buildings in Philadelphia's Society Hill were raised amid a
Speaker 1: fever for redevelopment. Up went skyscrapers and modern brick homes.
Speaker 1: But just off the corner of Second and Spruce Streets
Speaker 1: sits an odd, little standalone building with tilting brick walls.
Speaker 1: While Philadelphia is estimated to have had more than one
Speaker 1: hundred taverns during the colonial period, A Man full of Trouble,
Speaker 1: founded in seventeen fifty nine, is the only one surviving
Speaker 1: from that time. For the second one and half of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century and into the new millennium, the property
Speaker 1: languished in despair, serving as a museum of the Revolution
Speaker 1: and later as spartan housing for visiting scholars and students
Speaker 1: from the University of Pennsylvania. Dan Wheeler, an attorney and
Speaker 1: real estate investor, bought the building in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: and opened it to the public in December twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: The tavern serves drinks from a bar in the precise
Speaker 1: location where one had stood during the Revolutionary War, and
Speaker 1: brought in succession Fermentory, a rural Pennsylvania brewery, to pour
Speaker 1: its farmhouse brews. In the eighteen thirties, William Breton made
Speaker 1: the first known painting of A Man Full of Trouble
Speaker 1: in watercolor. But as you peruse the artifacts that Wheeler
Speaker 1: has gathered in the tavern's second floor museum, including period
Speaker 1: muskets and one of the oldest printings of the United
Speaker 1: States Constitution printed on nearby Front Street. It's easy to
Speaker 1: imagine patriots within these walls, whispering plans for the impending
Speaker 1: war and accompanying this article, did you know the role
Speaker 1: of taverns in Colonial America? Taverns were critical political and
Speaker 1: economic infrastructure in colonial America. As a result, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Colonial Boston alone was home to
Speaker 1: roughly one hundred and fifty taverns around the start of
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. That amounted to roughly one tavern for
Speaker 1: every one hundred Bostonians. By seventeen seventy, New York City
Speaker 1: hosted around one tavern for every sixty New Yorkers. Next.
Speaker 1: Cascade red foxes are notoriously reclusive, So how did this
Speaker 1: photographer capture these stunning images of the endangered species. Even
Speaker 1: the scientists who study the animals rarely see them except
Speaker 1: on camera, but Gretchen K Stewart spent a season documenting
Speaker 1: them up close. By Jenny Rothenberg Gritz, you never forget
Speaker 1: your first glimpse of a Cascade red fox for the
Speaker 1: wild life photographer Gretchen K stuart It happened in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty while she was driving up the slope of Washington
Speaker 1: State's Mount Rainier. As soon as she spotted the bundle
Speaker 1: of fur on a snow bank, she says, I knew
Speaker 1: she wasn't a normal fox. The animal's coat was pale, tawny,
Speaker 1: and extraordinarily bushy. She looked so different and so beautiful.
Speaker 1: I instantly fell in love and I photographed her, but
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this fox? An online fox
Speaker 1: hunt revealed very little information. The one short write up
Speaker 1: she could find was on the website of the Cascade's
Speaker 1: Carnivore Project, a non profit founded and directed by the
Speaker 1: wild life biologist Joscelyn Aikins. A photo made clear that
Speaker 1: the animal Stuart had seen was a Cascade red fox.
Speaker 1: Somewhat confusingly, these animals aren't always read. Their name simply
Speaker 1: indicates that they're a subspecies of the standard red fox
Speaker 1: that lives in the lowlands. Only about fifty Cascade red
Speaker 1: foxes have been identified, all of them on or around
Speaker 1: Mount Rainier or near by Mount Adams. Even Akins, who
Speaker 1: had been working to protect them since nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: had rarely spotted one in the wild. Joscelyn told me,
Speaker 1: we really only see them on our trail cameras. If
Speaker 1: we're lucky, recalls Stuart, who took those words as a challenge.
Speaker 1: She just laughed at me, like, ha ha, good luck.
Speaker 1: She didn't think I would find them, but I found
Speaker 1: another individual that summer, and the following year I found
Speaker 1: another too. I became obsessed. Conservationists usually don't worry much
Speaker 1: about foxes. These adaptable animals, in the same family as
Speaker 1: dogs and wolves, live on every continent other than Antarctica.
Speaker 1: The ancestors of North America's foxes are thought to have
Speaker 1: crossed the Baring Land Bridge from Asia, just as early
Speaker 1: humans likely did, but during an ice age that ended
Speaker 1: eleven thousand years ago, these foxes became isolated in separate populations.
Speaker 1: Some stayed in the lowlands and became the ancestors of
Speaker 1: ordinary red foxes that amble through suburban neighborhoods sniffing around
Speaker 1: garbage cans. Others adapted to cold conditions, and as the
Speaker 1: climate warmed, they sought refuge and higher altitudes, like the
Speaker 1: Cascade Mountains in what is now Washington State. They're just
Speaker 1: stuck in these high elevations without the ability to increase
Speaker 1: genetic diversity, Stuart says, they're becoming inbred. Really, they have
Speaker 1: a lot of threats that they face. Some of the
Speaker 1: most dire threats come from humans. Foxes spend three to
Speaker 1: four months raising their kits in dens, sheltered sites, sometimes
Speaker 1: close to human communities where food is more plentiful. In
Speaker 1: June twenty twenty five, Stuart was excited to come across
Speaker 1: a cascade red fox den at a ski resort, but
Speaker 1: she noticed right away that the location had many hazards. Indeed,
Speaker 1: the father ended up being hit by a car. Other
Speaker 1: members of the family died, apparently after ingesting rodenticide, which
Speaker 1: ski resorts often used to prevent deer mouse infestations. Aikens
Speaker 1: says the Washington State government has been working with resorts
Speaker 1: to minimize such hazards, but they are impossible to eliminate completely.
Speaker 1: People want to ski. Aikins said that is a challenge
Speaker 1: for wildlife, as is a road, as is climate change.
Speaker 1: About a month after the dispiriting news about the ski
Speaker 1: resort den, Stuart got a call from Mount Rainier National Park.
Speaker 1: A volunteer had found another Cascade red fox den with
Speaker 1: three kits, one male and two female. Although Stuart is
Speaker 1: a photograph not a scientist. Researchers and park rangers knew
Speaker 1: that she had a special history with the famously elusive creatures.
Speaker 1: A few years earlier, she'd partnered with the Cascade's Carnivore
Speaker 1: Project on a public awareness campaign which helped persuade Washington
Speaker 1: State to list the Cascade red fox as endangered. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, When Stuart arrived at the new Den,
Speaker 1: she realized she knew the mother. She'd even given the
Speaker 1: female fox a name, Shadow Aikens, the wildlife biologist, says,
Speaker 1: I always thought of foxes as not being identifiable as individuals.
Speaker 1: With a tiger or a leopard, you can identify it
Speaker 1: by its spots or stripes. But Gretchen was looking at
Speaker 1: subtler things. She was able to say, for instance, that
Speaker 1: one has a notch in its ear. Then we could
Speaker 1: look at the camera traps and say that red fox
Speaker 1: we saw yesterday is the same one or it's different.
Speaker 1: We could get a better sense of how many there
Speaker 1: are across the population. The new Den site was a
Speaker 1: sloping piece of land around several big trees. Its main
Speaker 1: access points were drainage tunnels under a trail, but the
Speaker 1: foxes built their own tunnels, which allowed them to pop
Speaker 1: up all over the place, But during Stuart's first hour
Speaker 1: at the site, she watched tourists thronging around the fox family.
Speaker 1: At one point, the mother tried to bring a meal
Speaker 1: to her kits and was so spooked by the crowds
Speaker 1: that she ran off without making the delivery. When Stuart
Speaker 1: reported this to park officials, they swiftly barricaded the area
Speaker 1: and assigned volunteers to take turns guarding access points from
Speaker 1: five a m. To nine p m. For the next
Speaker 1: few months, Stuart was the only person granted access to
Speaker 1: the den site. She spent long hours sitting behind a blind,
Speaker 1: taking photos and jotting down copious notes documenting how Cascade
Speaker 1: foxes raised their kits in a den. When I'm living
Speaker 1: out of my van up on the mountain, my sleep
Speaker 1: schedule adjusts to sunrise and sunset, Stuart says. I was
Speaker 1: so anxious to be with the foxes that I didn't
Speaker 1: want to waste time heating up coffee, so I would
Speaker 1: just have cold coffee. I ate a lot of snaky stuff, bananas, oranges, apples,
Speaker 1: granola bars, bread with hummus, and I would just sit
Speaker 1: and watch and wait. Male foxes are involved in raising
Speaker 1: and feeding their kits, and Stuart soon realized she knew
Speaker 1: the father too. She'd seen him a year earlier out
Speaker 1: in the back country and named him Crag because he
Speaker 1: was so good at scaling the mountains. He's got a
Speaker 1: bigger white portion on his tail, and he's got longer
Speaker 1: legs than a lot of the others, she says. Stuart
Speaker 1: watched Crag make meal deliveries to his offspring. He brought
Speaker 1: the kits a long tailed weasel, and that was pretty
Speaker 1: surprising because long tailed weasels are vicious, but this dad
Speaker 1: was a fierce hunter. The kits didn't eat the weasel,
Speaker 1: They just played tug of war with it. The funny
Speaker 1: thing was the dad was insisting that the kits play
Speaker 1: with this weasel. They would play with it for a while,
Speaker 1: and then they'd drop it and start playing with each other.
Speaker 1: She said he would go and pick it up and
Speaker 1: bring it back to them and make them keep playing
Speaker 1: with it. Why was the father fox so enthusiastic about
Speaker 1: this morbid version of pop Goo's The weasel parents who
Speaker 1: encouraged their kits to play with dead animals are generally
Speaker 1: teaching them to hunt, though a weasel seemed like an
Speaker 1: unusual choice because foxes generally don't eat them. Maybe a
Speaker 1: weasel was the dad's favorite childhood toy, Stuart speculates, I
Speaker 1: wish I could read their minds. The mother and father
Speaker 1: took turns bringing food, but every now and then Stuart
Speaker 1: got to see the whole family of five together. One time,
Speaker 1: the mom was with the kits and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: she ran up the slope and scrunched down really quickly.
Speaker 1: I looked and there was the dad. She was being
Speaker 1: really submissive, kind of rolling around, and he was just
Speaker 1: sitting there. The kits got all excited and ran over
Speaker 1: to him. Stuart hopes she'll be able to observe another
Speaker 1: den at the same site next year. Aikens says Stuart's
Speaker 1: work is a testament to how a photographer can integrate
Speaker 1: into a research project. There's only so much we can do,
Speaker 1: she says of her science team. We don't spend hours
Speaker 1: and days at dens. We're covering a bigger geographic scope,
Speaker 1: endlessly collecting scat and setting cameras across the landscape, trying
Speaker 1: to find out how many cascade red foxes there are
Speaker 1: and what their genetic diversity is I tromped through the
Speaker 1: woods at top speed checking camera stations, and Gretchen's like, God,
Speaker 1: you walk so fast. She has complete patience and she
Speaker 1: always has her big lens. And Accompanying this article, did
Speaker 1: you know following the Cascade red fox? Traditional tales from
Speaker 1: local native cultures about clever mountain foxes provide clues about
Speaker 1: where the Cascade red fox lived before Europeans arrived. The
Speaker 1: mountains where the Cascade red foxes reside have a higher
Speaker 1: annual snowfall than any other place in the United States,
Speaker 1: including Alaska, which makes it harder to track the species.
Speaker 1: Camera traps help, however, and some captions from the article.
Speaker 1: A five month old kit from the twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: litter spies a chipmunk. Despite their hunting lessons in the den,
Speaker 1: many young foxes become conditioned to eat leftover human food
Speaker 1: babies first snow. Compared with ordinary Lowland red foxes, Cascade
Speaker 1: red foxes have a smaller build and fur lined feet
Speaker 1: that move more easily across the snow. Kits in the
Speaker 1: same litter can have different coat colors. This concludes readings
Speaker 1: from the Smithsonian Magazine for Today Your reader has been
Speaker 1: Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening and have a great day.