Foxes, the world's cutest, bushy-taled creatures
You voted foxes as this month's featured animal. Get to know them.
Fox Facts
The Red Fox is referred to simply as a 'fox.' It has the widest range of any terrestrial carnivore, being native to Canada, Alaska, almost all of the contiguous United States, Europe, North Africa and almost all of Asia, including Japan.
More Underwater Fun
Fox Description
The Red Fox is most commonly a rusty red, with white underbelly, black ear tips and legs, and a bushy tail with a distinctive white tip. The red tone can vary from crimson to golden. In North America, the red fox's pelt has long, soft hair.
Fox Size
The Red Fox may reach an adult weight of six to 15 pounds, but this varies from region to region; European individuals being larger, on average, than those in North America.
Foxes in Story Tales
The Red Fox has both positive and negative standing with humans, often being loved or hated. The fox is featured in most story tales as a tricky villain.
Fox Hunt
They usually hunt alone in meadows, the natural environment of their most common prey items; mice and voles. With their acute sense of hearing, they can locate rodents through the thick grass and in their underground burrows. They wait until the mouse or vole comes above ground, then the fox jumps high in the air and pounces on its prey in a cat-like manner.
Eye of the Fox
The fox's eyes are gold to yellow and have distinctive vertically slit pupils, similar to those of a feline. Their eyesight is also as sharp as that of a feline, and combined with their extreme agility, the Red Fox has been referred to as cat like. Its long bushy tail with distinctive white tip provides balance for large jumps and complex movement. Its strong legs allow it to reach speeds of 45 miles per hour, a great benefit to catching prey or avoiding predators.
Fox Diet
Red foxes are omnivorous, this dietary adaptability being one of the main factors in the species wide distribution. The majority of their diet consists of invertebrates, such as insects, mollusks, earthworms and crayfish. Common vertebrate prey includes rodents such as mice and voles, rabbits, birds, eggs, amphibians, small reptiles and fish
Social Creatures
Socially, the fox communicates with body language and a variety of vocalizations. Its vocal range is quite large and its noises vary from a distinctive three-yip 'lost call' to a shriek reminiscent of a human scream. It also communicates with scent, marking food and territorial boundary lines.
Furry Foxes
During the autumn and winter, the Red Fox will grow more fur. This so-called 'winter fur' keeps the animal warm in the colder environment. The fox sheds this fur at the onset of spring, reverting back to the short fur for the duration of the summer.
Fox Territory
Foxes also signal each other by making scent posts, urinating on trees or rocks to announce their presence.
Fox Behavior
Living as it does in a wide variety of habitats, the Red Fox displays a wide variety of behaviors. The Red Fox has a tendency to becoming nocturnal in areas of great human interference, which means that most are active at night and at twilight. It is generally a solitary hunter. If a fox catches more food than it can eat, it will bury the extra food to store it for later.
Fox Babies
The Red Fox produces a litter of four to six kits (also called pups) each year. Young foxes leave their mothers at around eight to ten months.
At Birth
At birth, red foxes are actually brown or gray. A new red coat usually grows in by the end of the first month, but some red foxes are golden, reddish-brown, silver, or even black. Both parents care for their young through the summer before they are able to strike out on their own in the fall.
