A fox that has been living in a Germantown storm drain near an elementary school bus stop for more than a month likely has mange, not rabies, according to wildlife experts.

Residents living near the storm drain at the intersection of Ridgecrest Drive and Stoney Bottom Road said last week that they had been unable to determine who to call for help with the fox, which they suspected of having rabies. The fox is missing large patches of hair and has growled at and chased people.

"We saw it again today," neighbor Scott Spector said Thursday afternoon. "It was just sitting out here sunning itself and the mailman didn't want to deliver the mail."

Police and others came to the neighborhood shortly after, but the fox was gone, he said.

Animal control officials met with county transportation staff in the neighborhood Aug. 24 to inspect the storm drain and again Aug. 26 with a wildlife control expert who will help catch the fox with a humane box trap, according to Capt. Michael Wahl, animal control director. Attempts to trap the fox were expected to begin over the weekend, he said.

"Trapping foxes can be difficult," Wahl wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. "They are often ‘sly as a fox.'"

The fox most likely has severe case of mange, a skin disease common in mammals caused by mites that burrow into the skin, said Wahl and John Hadidian, director of urban wildlife programs for the Humane Society of the United States in Gaithersburg, after viewing pictures of the animal. The Humane Society of the United States and the Montgomery County Humane Society are not affiliated.

Red foxes are most severely affected by the disease, especially young animals in the summer, and symptoms include hair loss, scabs and eventually weakness, blindness and difficulties hearing and eating. Mange is easily treated with antibiotics but often fatal in wild animals.

"I am sure that animal is suffering terribly," Hadidian wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. "Often the encrustations lead to loss of sight, and of course the constant itching and skin problems have to be a torment."

The sarcoptic mites that cause mange can spread to people as scabies, but die after a few weeks and do not complete their life cycle.

"There is generally very little risk of transmission to domestic animals or humans," Wahl wrote.

If caught, the fox will likely be euthanized due to the severity of the disease, Wahl said.

mtierney@gazette.net

Call the Montgomery County Humane Society at 240-773-5960 about injured wildlife; young wild animals abandoned by their mothers; wild animals in living areas of homes; and wild animals suspected of having rabies.

Contact the Maryland Department of Natural Resources at 301-258-7308 for hunting violations; unlawful possession of wild animals; and other wildlife nuisance issues like squirrels living in attics. For more information, call DNR's free wildlife nuisance hotline at 877-463-6497.

For more information about co-existing with foxes in urban environments, visit www.humanesociety.org/

animals/foxes.