COUNTYWIDE : 2 Foxes Hit Road Again, Back to O.C.

Two members of the Costa Mesa Freeway fox family were returned to Orange County on Wednesday, where they took up residence in new digs at Irvine Regional Park amid the clicking of cameras and welcoming remarks by an Orange County supervisor.

The two female red foxes were shuttled in a plastic pet carrier from the Los Angeles Zoo, where they have been in quarantine with their mother and four siblings since April.

The six foxes were captured April 28 from their burrow alongside a newly built stretch of the freeway. At first, officials were prepared to let the furry critters fend for themselves when the freeway opened to traffic. But a public outcry prompted the director of the state Fish and Game Department to launch a “rescue” effort that took 10 days and the work of 33 people at an estimated cost of $25,000.

Because red foxes are not native to coastal California and imperil several endangered bird species, the mom and her pups were destined for captivity wherever zoos would take them.

The two returning Orange County foxes will join two red foxes and one gray fox already in residence at the Orange County Zoo in Irvine Park, said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who was on hand to greet the pups Wednesday.

“They’re very cute and they’re just fascinating to watch,” Vasquez said. “After about a half-hour, they really settled in. They were having a good time and getting comfortable.”

Zookeepers put out plates of food for the young carnivores, but neither showed much interest. “We were told they fed them in Los Angeles before they came,” Vasquez said.