PUTTING THE FOX IN A BOX
The University of Rochester’s QuadFox(es), Quincy
DIANA SULLIVAN
Around 2018, two red foxes who would later be known, collectively, as Quincy the QuadFox, first made their appearance on the University of Rochester’s River Campus within Rochester, New York.1,2 It makes sense that the red foxes would find this area to be a favorable environment. Red foxes (Vulpes Vulpes) thrive in woodlands, wetlands, brushy fields, and rural/suburban neighborhoods across the continental US. They are omnivores, favoring small mammals like rabbits and rodents but also eating plants, birds and amphibians. They often hunt at night, alone, to avoid humans or other predators and use their acute senses of hearing, sight, and smell to track food.3 As a result, the River Campus offered ideal habitat. The campus, which sits at the edge of the wetlands of the Genesee River and surrounding fields and woodlands like Mt. Hope Cemetery, provided lush green spaces, ample wildlife, and a lack of humans at night.
FIGURE ONE
QuadFox outside Wilson Commons
(Connor Newman, 2019)
At the time of their initial sightings on campus, the foxes were stricken with mange, a parasitic skin disease that causes irritation. It was supposed by campus officials that this is the reason why they became so apparent on campus.4 The disease interfered with their regular eating and sleeping abilities, emboldening their hunting tactics and wandering more than normal during the day. The university’s Pest Control Unit, a team responsible for the removal and management of animals deemed to be nuisances in and around campus buildings, played a large role in interactions with the QuadFox during its appearance. They informed many of the campus announcements made about the foxes’ well-being and tried to treat them.5
While the disease posed no threat to humans, it tugged on the emotional heartstrings of the university community, as can be seen in the various Facebook posts, Instagram posts, and news articles about them, as well as through the direct opinions of people who were exposed to the foxes. As with other universities, there are multiple animal fan pages for red fox sightings around the River Campus. Many of these highlight the QuadFox, and there is even one Facebook account impersonating it. The posts throughout the time of the QuadFox highlight the emotional attachment the people have to the QuadFox. Although death is a natural part of life, students at the University of Rochester were often upset seeing animals die.6
This general emotional attachment was both a positive strong point in the QuadFox’s reputation as well as a point of criticism. During the QuadFox’s period of poor health, as the UR’s Pest Control Unit attempted to treat the mange, the campus community was rooting for its well-being and recovery. One student said “I’m glad to see it’s getting the care it deserves, it may be leaving campus, but it’ll never leave our hearts.”7 There are many other beloved animals, however, that inhabit the campus that are common prey of red foxes, such as bunnies, groundhogs, and birds. Many students have outspokenly disapproved of witnessing hunting, even as a necessary and natural course of survival for foxes.8 One stated that “eating squirrels in the middle of Wilson Quad is not the same as getting food from The Pit and eating it outside because it’s a nice day outside” while many other expressed their disapproval in comments on videos of the fox with a bunny in its mouth on social media.9
Students have come to adore the fox population so much to the point it has become incorporated in branding for various student organizations, such as the Quidditch team and URFoot (an orientation program) as well as having the QuadFox 5K named after it. It is obvious that the foxes that are considered as the “QuadFox” are thought of differently than most other wild foxes; they are considered more of a concept than actual individuals as they are grouped into this one persona. Labeling the two as “Quincy” eliminates their individuality as living beings and begins to turn them into fictional characters and mascot like.10 The most obvious objectification and mascot-ification of the QuadFox was in 2019 when students helped it run for student government creating campaign merch of plushies, pins, and t-shirts. It even got 387 votes.11
FIGURE TWO
QuadFox 5K branding
(Wilson Commons Student Activities, 2021)
FIGURE THREE
Mascotification
(QuadFox for SA President, 2019)
Being small, ill, and existing in the sanctuary bubble that is the River Campus, the QuadFox was less threatening to the community as opposed to foxes in other settings and to other larger predators such as coyotes. The fact that it was so regularly spotted and publicized has warmed up the community to the idea of living side by side with a wild animal such as itself and would be more unnerving if it was seen rarely. Roaming campus and stealing hearts, the University of Rochester’s QuadFox crossed cultural boundaries around space and the place of animals.
NOTES
1. “Pest Control Unit.” UofR: Environmental Health & Safety: Pest Control, www.safety.rochester.edu/homepages/pesthome.html. Accessed 14 May 2025.
2. Whitestone, Trevor. “Quad Fox, Winner of 387 SA Votes, to Be Treated and Released into Wild.” Campus Times, 15 Apr. 2019, www.campustimes.org/2019/04/15/quad-fox-winner-of-387-sa-votes-to-be-treated-and-released-into-wild/. See also Yoon, Ashley. “For Ur’s Two Quad Foxes, a New Year, and a New Chapter.” Campus Times, 9 Dec. 2019, www.campustimes.org/2019/12/08/for-urs-two-quad-foxes-a-new-year-and-a-new-chapter/.
3. “Red Fox.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Red-Fox. Accessed 12 May 2025.
4. “Pest Control Unit.”
5. Interview with Tristan Kasper (UR’s Pest Control Unit). 4 Apr. 2025.
6. “Quincy Fox for SA President.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/QuadFox2019/?epa=SEARCH_BOX. Accessed 12 May 2025. See also “University of Rochester Fox.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/profile/100064542617488/search/?q=fox. Accessed 12 May 2025.
7. Ibid.
8. Interview with Tristan Kasper. 2025.
9. Busch, Ethan. “Replacing Rocky: Dandelion, Groundboi, and Quad Fox Popular Candidates for New Mascot.” Campus Times, 7 Oct. 2019, www.campustimes.org/2019/10/06/replacing-rocky-dandelion-groundboi-and-quad-fox-popular-candidates-for-new-mascot/.
10. Whitestone. 2019.
11. Ibid.