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A very sly red fox snuck onto a cargo ship that whisked him from his home in England to the U.S.! The bushy-tailed stowaway, who likely frolicked in the countryside near the port city of Southampton, survived the 3,400-mile journey across the Atlantic and now finds himself behind bars in the Bronx, The Associated Press reported.
When the ship docked two weeks later, Port of New York and New Jersey officials discovered the 2-year-old illegal immigrant, detained him and locked him up at the Bronx Zoo.
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Veterinarians at the famous facility examined the 11-pound English patient and reported that he appeared healthy in an initial exam, but they are awaiting results from additional screenings.
“He seems to be settling in well,” Keith Lovett, the zoo’s director of animal programs, told AP. “It’s gone through a lot.”
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For now, the new American is staying in the zoo’s veterinary center, where he’s enjoying a diet of produce, protein and special fox-friendly biscuits. Once it’s determined he’s fit, wildlife experts will find him a new home.
Officials at the Port of Southampton expressed surprise that a fox had secretly booked itself a transatlantic crossing.
“Clearly it fancied swapping the Solent [a strait between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland] for the Staten Island Ferry, though next time we’d recommend it consider the Queen Mary 2, which offers the Southampton to New York route with considerably more comfort,” a spokesman quipped, via Daily Mail.