This baby fox was found trapped in a pipe at a construction site near Oracle Park over the weekend. 

LATEST May 10, 1:27 p.m. More information has been revealed about the baby fox that was rescued from a pipe at a construction site near Oracle Park on Saturday afternoon.

Lila Travis, the director of Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue in Potrero Hill where the animal is currently in recovery, told SFGATE a representative from the construction company reached out to her. The representative provided Travis with the addresses of the storage yards where the uninstalled pipes were shipped in from. According to the company, the pipes were from San Jose and Newark, leading Travis to believe that the animal found inside one of them is a non-endangered gray fox native to San Francisco. 

Now, the wildlife hospital is focused on ensuring she can be safely returned to her natural habitat.

"We are able to get her into care with other orphaned foxes so she can begin her work to grow healthy and strong and get back out into the wild. Our goal is to get her in with other grey fox babies her age so they can learn together and be released together," Travis said. "We will be working with other local wildlife centers in the Newark and San Jose areas to figure out where the best placement for this little one is." 

A six-week-old fox is in recovery at Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue in Potrero Hill after she was found trapped in a pipe at a construction site near Oracle Park. 

May 8, 3:56 p.m. A baby fox is currently recovering at Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue in Potrero Hill after construction crews discovered the animal lodged in a pipe at the Mission Rock development site near Oracle Park over the weekend.

Rescue efforts began at around 1:28 p.m. on Saturday, San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Jonathan Baxter told SFGATE. The night before, crews on site heard noises coming from an uninstalled pipe and found the fox’s head peeking out from one end. A security guard placed a french fry next to the pipe in an attempt to lure the fox out, but noticed that the animal appeared to be trapped, San Francisco Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell said. 

They called the agency the next morning, but Meagan Clarke, one of the officers on duty, realized they needed special tools to free the fox and contacted the fire department for backup. Once they arrived, Rebecca Fenson, another officer with Animal Care and Control, said they used baby oil to aid in freeing the fox and took turns pushing and pulling as they tried to safely get her out. 

The removal of the animal — no larger than a kitten at about 6 weeks old — took approximately half an hour, Baxter said. 

Today at 1:30 PM #YOURSFFD & @SFACC responded to the Mission Rock Construction Site by the ballpark for a reported baby FOX stuck in hole. Members from #SFFDT4 Truck 4 used power saws and cooling water under the supervision of @SFACC and rescued the baby fox, who will be okay. pic.twitter.com/GWGv6qkk5W

After her rescue, Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue director Lila Travis said she had to give the animal three baths to completely remove the dirt and oil from her fur while she examined her body for any abrasions or injuries. 

“She is emaciated and dehydrated but doing surprisingly well considering. Our job is to get her stabilized, hydrated and eating on her own, which she is making easy,” Travis told SFGATE on Sunday afternoon, noting that the fox is currently being fed a recovery diet that includes hard boiled eggs and berries as well as thawed frozen mice to replicate her usual meals in the wild. 

More information is needed before the fox can be safely released from the volunteer-run wildlife hospital. Travis said she recently learned the pipes the animal was trapped in had been shipped to San Francisco within the last few days from an undetermined storage location, and knowing where they originated from is vital.

“California has several species of foxes that are endangered and we want to make sure that she is returned to an area that has her species of fox,” Travis said. “We are in the process of trying to get that information from the company.” 

If the pipes were shipped in from the Sacramento area, the fox could be an endangered Sacramento Valley red fox, which are strikingly similar to the gray foxes that are native to San Francisco. Travis also suspects that the animal could be a San Joaquin kit fox, another endangered variety, but because of her age, it’s nearly impossible to tell.  

“She could be from a different state altogether,” Travis said. “My guess would be that this baby got separated from her mom and ran into the pipe for shelter. Then the pipe was shipped to San Francisco for the construction project and the baby was trapped and tried to get out through the tiny port but got stuck.”

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Reports of red and gray fox sightings are becoming more common around San Francisco, Campbell said, noting a recent Nextdoor thread in which one individual said they found a fox living in their yard. 

“They called us to see if they should do anything in particular, or if we thought it was sick. It looked like a relaxed and happy fox enjoying a nice backyard,” Campbell said. “We always tell people not to feed them, just like with any wildlife.”

This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available. 

Amanda Bartlett is a culture reporter for SFGATE. Prior to joining the newsroom in 2019, she worked for the Roxie Theater, Noise Pop and Frameline Film Festival. Bartlett graduated from the University of Iowa and lives in San Francisco.