Five furry foxes freed from fir farm are newest exhibit at Chehaw

ALBANY – Five foxes freed from a life of cramped cages and waiting to be “harvested” for their fur have found a home in southwest Georgia, and on Friday they were officially welcomed to a new habitat.

Some of the red foxes, whose coloration is decidedly not red, were happily munching on mice distributed by a Chehaw Park & Zoo staffer and were mostly oblivious to the group of humans gathered for the groundbreaking at their new exhibit area.

Rescued from a fur mill in the North Central United States, the foxes were not candidates for release into the wild or for breeding.

The arrived in Albany in 2023, but their exhibit area was not completed until a few months ago, making them available for viewing. Prior to their arrival, the foxes had a decidedly harsh life, Samantha Sassone, the living collections director at the zoo, said.

“The animals were in very small cages, I think 3-foot x 5-foot enclosures” she said. “They were on mesh their entire life. It appears that when they got here was the first time they had ever touched grass.”

Most of the foxes appear to be about a year old, and one is perhaps a little older, Sassone said.

Members of the family that has formed in Albany were among about 500 foxes rescued from the fur farm and were likely inbred, which is why they are not candidates for breeding and were neutered, Sassone said.

“We got a beautiful variety of colors,” she said. “We didn’t request particular colors. Red foxes are native really globally. They’re pretty much everywhere. They’re very social animals.”

The new exhibit is just one of several on tap for the zoo, with wart hogs, fruit bats and possibly river otters coming in the future, Chehaw board President Tom Seegmueller said. 

“We’ve got a binturong exhibit now,” he said. “It’s a small mammal that looks like a bear/panda. We’re working with a design team to come up with four new exhibits. We’re working with SPLOST (special-purpose local-option sales tax) money to fund the next exhibit.”

Chehaw officials also are working with the Junior League of Albany to build a handicap-inclusive play park, Seegmueller said. Other plans include a concession stand in the park and restoring the large wooded areas of the park to a native longleaf pine/wiregrass habitat.

During his remarks to the audience prior to the ribbon-cutting, Albany Mayor Bo Dorough urged Lee County to take a more active financial role in the park, most of which is actually inside Lee County. Dougherty County and contiguous counties are eligible to have a member on Chehaw’s board.

“The thinking was if we gave Lee County and Dougherty County Board of Commissioners each one appointment, then those entities would contribute to the park,” the mayor said. “It’s always nice to get to the finish line like we are today, but we are not to the end of the finish line.”