For years, wildlife enthusiasts Dan Ballard and Jane Hunter have been filming the wild animals that wander through their large backyard in Austin, Texas. They share their discoveries on their YouTube channel, Texas Backyard Wildlife, and over time, they’ve captured countless incredible moments.
But in 2020, they recorded something so unusual that even they couldn’t believe it.
“This is about the strangest but also the most amazing thing we’ve ever caught on camera,” Ballard explained in a video describing the event.
In the footage, a mother raccoon is seen moving through the brush with her baby kit. She appears to be looking for a safe place to hide him while she goes off to forage for food and water. After a while, she discovers what looks like a secure spot: a hollow tree stump. Convinced it will keep her baby safe, she gently places him there and leaves to continue her search for food.
What the raccoon doesn’t realize, however, is that her chosen hiding place is not safe at all—it’s extremely dangerous.
“This is actually a fox den,” Ballard explains in the video. “Mama raccoon seems to think she’s found a raccoon daycare, but she’s wrong.”
At first, the father fox reacts aggressively, hissing at the tiny raccoon who has been left behind. But instead of attacking, he quickly seems to understand that the little kit poses no threat, and he decides to let him be.
The raccoon climbs down into the den itself, where the fox pups are resting. Nervous and unsure, he tucks himself away in a corner. At first, the baby foxes are cautious around the unexpected visitor. They circle him, sniff curiously, and hesitate. But after a short while, their behavior changes—they begin to accept him.
“The little fox pups come in to check on him,” Ballard narrates. “And eventually it looks like they decided, ‘Wow, I guess we have a pet now.’”
What makes this moment so incredible is that foxes are natural predators of raccoons. According to the Wildlife Rescue League, it is especially common for foxes to attack young raccoons like the one who wandered into their den. Yet in this case, the baby raccoon was spared.
Later that night, after the fox family had fallen asleep, the raccoon kit quietly crept out of the den and reunited with his mother. Against all odds, he had survived the ordeal unharmed.
“They wander off into the sunrise,” Ballard concluded, “and live happily ever after.”