Rare Fox Causes Uproar On South Sacramento High School Campus; Activities Come To Halt

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A wild chase caused quite a scene at a high school in South Sacramento this week. A fox charging through campus gave wildlife experts a run for their money.

Who would have thought one creature could strike up such a stir on the ball field. But when a rare red fox comes charging out of nowhere, you can bet there's going to be a raucous.

"A lot of the soccer players making a lot of noise, we were making a lot of noise. So it was avoiding us but we've heard it can be a dangerous animal," said Valley High School Softball Coach James Millholland.

The Elk Grove School District called Sacramento City Animal Control but the fox was so sneaky, animal control officers had to call wildlife experts. Video from Ben Nuckolls with California Wildlife Encounters shows him from his view chasing the animal with a net gun, and that was just a back up after they'd already set up a tangle net system.

"Animal control had a really hard time trying to catch it. I didn't think they were going to catch it," said Assistant Softball Coach Natalie Biana.

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Biana was right.  The tangled net worked for a hot second, but the fox broke loose and took off.

"We were just practicing and then we head a lot of noise and then he was just there. He was really cute though," said Camara Archie.

And that's the general outlook. It's really cute. Wildlife experts say the red fox is generally more scared of humans than harmful.

School officials say students have taken such an interest in the red fox, teachers are using the situation as an opportunity in the classroom.