Printer-friendlyRed Fox-Furbearer Profiles
Description:
An adult red fox in the fall is an impressive animal. They have a light uniform cherry red over the shoulders, back, and rump with jet black ears and lower legs. Their fur is light, soft, and silky. All red foxes have white tail tips from birth. Most adults have delicate light gray chests and throats. When full grown, they weigh only between 7 and 14 pounds. Foxes use their tails for balance. The tails are proportionally longer than the tail of a coyote and are held straight out behind when the fox is running.
Distribution and Habitat:
Red fox are in nearly every county of New York State and in many of the open spaces and parks of our cities and suburbs. Though red foxes prefer the pastures and meadows of farming country, they also are found in woodlands. Indeed they seem to prefer dens in forests or woodlots over those in open country.
Behavior:
The red fox female or "vixen" becomes sexually receptive during late December or early January when she and her mate begin to mark territories of 1 to 1 1/2 square miles in area. They mark these territories with droppings displayed on rocks, trails or other conspicuous places and with urine scent posts deposited in typical dog-like, leg-lifting fashion. The pair usually searches out and explores a number of woodchuck burrows.
March is the whelping season for red foxes. Though vixens are quite capable of digging their whelping dens, they seldom dig their own. This is because woodchuck burrows are just the right size and depth.
Red fox are not strictly territorial. There are several reports of vixens and their pups sharing dens in April with other red fox families. There also are reports of red fox families adopting orphaned pups.
Observers of litters of red foxes in early May report much wrestling and chasing which is often thought to be play. More intense observation soon shows that this activity usually is harassment which soon causes litters to divide into pairs or trios and to seek other woodchuck holes for safety from their aggressive siblings.
Most red fox pups leave their woodchuck burrows before mid-June. This probably is because woodchuck fleas, which hatch out in large numbers as the soil warms, make the burrows too uncomfortable. Vixens probably stop bringing food to pups at this time too.
Much of the "hunting" activity of red foxes may actually be a sort of patrolling in search of evidence of other foxes. The displayed droppings, scent posts and other territorial marking suggest that they maintain a constant awareness of their neighbors. When food occurs in widely scattered small bits, red foxes probably have a different social structure than when food occurs at a garbage pile or other concentrated source. In other words, red fox behavior patterns are altered to suit their conditions. They are adaptable.
Red foxes pounce upon small prey items like mice, nestling birds or frogs. They chase or stalk larger prey like rabbits, grouse, turkeys, ducks, geese, woodchucks, or house cats. The most commonly observed stalking occurs in late June or July, sometimes in rural or suburban back yards.
When a red fox catches a prey item, it seldom eats it on the spot. Instead, it digs an appropriately sized hole and stores it. Of course, when a fox comes upon its hidden food and is hungry, it digs it up and eats it. Some items, such as eggs or bird heads, are almost always stored. A more curious feature of red fox behavior seems to be an inability to kill larger prey. It is not uncommon to see red foxes carrying live rabbits or birds. Sometimes these live prey species are actually stored alive, recover, and walk or fly away.
Mortality Factors:
The life of a red fox is hazardous from birth. Litters of nearly naked, blind and deaf newborn pups are left in dens while vixens search for food. The pups are vulnerable to any mammal or reptile that can crawl about in the burrow. Long-tailed weasels, ermine, skunks, mink, gray foxes, snakes, or woodchucks are the most likely threats.
As the pups emerge from dens at about four weeks of age (in April) they become the prey of hawks by day, or owls by night. They also are vulnerable to crows, coyotes, gray foxes, bobcats, house cats, and dogs. If the den is close to a road, pups often are killed by car and truck traffic. When pups find exposed mice in newly cut hayfields in June, they are drawn into the open and again become vulnerable to owls and hawks.
The list of diseases and parasites of red foxes is long. The most important mortality factors of young pups may be maggots of more than a dozen fly species that infest the meat that adults bring. Some flies lay their eggs on the pups and the maggots (called warbles or bots) can cause serious injury or death.
The most common disease of red foxes is sarcoptic mange. This disease is especially contagious and deadly. It is caused by a microscopic mite that lives in the skin. Infected red foxes almost always are killed in two to four months. Mites live on dead foxes for as long as ten days. Since other foxes are attracted to carcasses, mange can be passed from a dead fox to a live one.
Rabies is another disease that affects red foxes, especially in parts of northern New York. At one time, the red fox was considered the primary vector of this dreaded disease. Most red foxes actually die from rabies too quickly to spread the disease to other animals or humans. Nevertheless, rabies always should be considered when one encounters a tame or sick looking red fox. Leave the animal alone.
Management:
Since 1900, there only have been three periods when the amount offered for the best red fox pelts even approached the value of the labor required to obtain them. In 1918, 15,000 red foxes were killed when $33 was offered for the best ones. When $40 was offered for the best in 1927, fox hunters and trappers collected 35,650 red foxes. Through the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, red foxes were not worth skinning, but bounties provided interest in killing foxes in some counties. When fox pelt prices began to be attractive in the mid 1970s, more were taken and an interest in their protection developed.
The red fox has been a protected game animal in New York State since 1974. They may be taken by hunting or trapping only during their established seasons. Otherwise, they may not be shot or trapped unless they are injuring crops or livestock. Bounties are illegal.
The annual kill of red foxes is monitored through a survey of people who buy hunting and trapping licenses. The highest reported kill of red foxes in recent years was 53,000 in the 1979-80 hunting and trapping season. More recent annual kill figures have ranged between 15,000 and 20,000 each year. This decline in red fox kill is thought to be the effect of a weak market for red fox pelts.
The long term outlook for New York State red foxes probably includes a gradual decline in their numbers until a stable level of farmland is reached. This largely is because the increasing forest land of the state supports fewer red foxes; and because of competition they face from Eastern coyotes that are better adapted to woodland habitat.
Nevertheless, and in spite of their troubles with diseases, parasites, and coyotes, red foxes in New York thrive where the habitat is suitable.
