Traveling to Japan’s north island for my annual Hokkaido photo wildlife photo workshop means encounters with the Ezo Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes schrencki), a distinct subspecies of the red fox. The Ezo red fox is larger than the Japanese red fox found in the Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Also, there are slight differences in the color of the lines on the outer ears and limbs.  The mother fox gives birth to their kits in the early spring, so by autumn, there is potential to see young adults recently broken away from their mothers and hunting independently for the first season. If you see a young adult or a full-grown Ezo Red Fox, you will marvel at their lustrous coat and witness the contrast of their fur and the stark whites and blacks of their surroundings.  I have spent countless months and years in the Canadian bush and in off the beaten path locations around the world, so I am attuned to blending into Hokkaido’s avian wildlife such as the Steller’s Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), Blakiston’s Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni), or the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) as well as the land-based wildlife such as the Ezo Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus), the largest herd of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) on the planet, and, of course, The Ezo Red Fox.  But I cannot emphasize enough that these are wild animals, and we locals in Hokkaido are concerned that too many tourists are supplementary feeding them to get a snapshot.