Three hikers were attacked by a fox in Saguaro National Park-West in separate incidents Wednesday and Thursday, authorities say.
The fox was euthanized Friday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a post on X. “The fox was put down while approaching a Saguaro National Park Service officer on the Hugh Norris Trail where the attacks occurred. Remains will be rabies tested.”
In the first two incidents, the hikers fended off the fox with trekking poles, but one person was scratched on the leg and the other was bruised in a fall.
The third attack happened Thursday afternoon on the Hugh Norris Trail. Game and Fish spokesman Mark Hart said that hiker also was scratched, though it was unclear if the wound came from the animal or a branch.
A fox (not the one in the national park incidents this week).
There has been a series of confirmed rabies cases in the Tucson area in recent months, but state wildlife officials have not called it an outbreak, the Arizona Daily Star previously reported.
Three horses were attacked by a rabid coyote at two neighboring properties off of Harrison Road north of Irvington Road on Feb. 22.
Post-mortem testing also showed rabies in a fox from the Vail area that was dropped off at the Tucson Wildlife Center on Feb. 21.
Other confirmed cases included a bobcat that attacked a woman in her carport off east Redington Pass Road and was killed by authorities on Nov. 27 and another diseased bobcat in Benson last year.
Unconfirmed cases, meanwhile, came on Feb. 1, when a gray fox was filmed acting strangely on the patio of a home on East Chukut Trail, not far from Agua Caliente Park; Jan. 21, when a bobcat bit and scratched a man on Cactus Forest Drive in the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park; Jan. 13, when a skunk bit a man and chased others at the Proctor Trailhead in Madera Canyon; and Dec. 27, when a gray fox bit one person and tried to attack another at the Molino Basin campground in the Catalina Mountains.
Rabies was also suspected in the case of a sick, slobbering coyote that was filmed on Feb. 10 in Tucson Estates, a west side neighborhood off Kinney Road near Ajo Highway, though Hart said distemper or even poisoning could also explain that behavior.
Anyone who sees a sick or possibly rabid animal is asked to call the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 623-236-7201.
Security camera footage shows a rabid coyote attacking two horses in Tucson.
