The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Erin Flanagan

Erin Flanagan quietly was working in her office when an electrical engineering professor approached her and told her about a large, mysterious creature in a tree outside the professor's window.


When Flanagan and others in the Texas Tech Electrical Engineering Building raced to the window to peer into the tree, Flanagan said she was shocked when she caught a glimpse of the creature.

"That's a fox," she said. "So I ran and grabbed my camera."

After several recent reports of Tech students spotting foxes on campus, Tech police and animal services experts confirmed the reports and urge students to not be afraid of the animals if they are spotted.

Flanagan, a Tech academic adviser and part-time accounting student from Lubbock, said she was not frightened by the elusive creature, but she worried about whether the fox would be able to escape from its lofty position.

"The entire engineering department was looking at the window to watch the fox," she said. "I was concerned for the fox. It looked tired and confused. It looked like it was scared and didn't know how to get down from the tree."

Flanagan said she contacted Lubbock Animal Services and a representative informed her foxes often climb trees and know how to climb down.

"They told me it would come down when it was ready," she said.

It was strange to be able to look outside a window





and see a wild animal on campus, she said.

"I'd expect to see a fox at Ransom Canyon or somewhere like that," Flanagan said. "But not in a tree on the Tech campus."

Maj. Gordon Hoffman of the Tech Police Department said police have had several reports over the years of foxes being spotted on campus.

"We normally spot them at Jones (AT&T) Stadium," Gordon said. "Many reports come right before kick-off of Tech football games."

Hoffman said he has not received a report of the foxes attacking people at the stadium.

"One time, the Lubbock Animal Services were contacted to remove a fox from the student section," Hoffman said. "It ran all the way to the top of the section and almost jumped off the ledge but was caught just in time."

Continued...

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