I live in the mountains of northern California. Yes, there are plenty of predators in the area. Cougars are regularly relocated, or, if deemed necessary, shot. Bears are always a problem and our local dump had to be turned into a weigh station and the garbage has to be trucked out because that's where the bears wanted to hang out. Ooops !
But the purpose of my post is to give a heads up. If you see a nocturnal animal, like a fox, in daylight, be very, very cautious. Annually, our local newspaper publishes an article about this and rabies every year. According to studies quoted in the article ... which I don't have at hand ... more often than not a nocturnal animal seen in daylight will be rabid.
Unfortunately, I am not exaggerating. Last year, a friend of mine had to go through rabies treatment because he was nipped by a fox when he was trying to protect his "outside" cat. He hunted down the fox and shot him and took the dead animal in for testing and began rabies treatment before the test results were back. The fox was rabid.
I guess what I am trying to share is that it may not be wise to think these animals are just after food and water.
Lyn
