Have you ever called someone “sly as a fox”, or better yet been called that yourself? Well, the fox has been admired for thousands of years for its intelligence and cunning behavior.
The red fox is a member of the dog (canid) family and is the largest of the true foxes. They are very agile on their feet, can run 31 mph and are best known for their pouncing ability. While in the dog family, the red fox also has many catlike characteristics in their whiskers, teeth, paws and vertical slit pupils. They get their name from their reddish fur, but they also have black socks and a white tipped tail.
Like us, they are omnivores and eat a wide variety of foods. Their diet includes small mammals, birds, eggs, insects, vegetation and carrion. However, their favorite snack is a meadow vole. These small rodents tunnel under the grass in fields and meadows. Like most dogs, foxes hunt by smell, sight and sound. Once they smell a prey item underground, grass or snow, they will sit patiently listening for the sound of movement. With cat-like quickness they pounce or dig quickly to catch the prey.
They breed in February or March resulting in 4-7 young called “kits” in late April or early May. The den is usually on the side of a hill near a stream or river with one or more entrances. One of my fondest memories while working in the County Parks was discovering a red fox den in Shawnee Lookout Park and being lucky enough to view the kits playing and wrestling with each other near the entrance!
There is another fox that calls the Corridor home. That is the grey fox! Besides it’s grayer color and lacking the white-tipped tail, there are other distinct differences. The grey fox is the most arboreal canid and can climb trees to escape predators or find prey. They also have a stockier appearance, shorter legs and oval pupils. Because they have nearly twice the chromosomes as the red fox, crossbreeding between the two is virtually impossible.
Since the return of bobcats and the migration of coyotes into our area, foxes now have more competition for territory and prey items. however, if you are lucky during a hike in the Corridor during dawn or dusk it is still quite possible to catch a glimpse of one of these beautiful animals.