What do they look like?

Gray foxes resemble small, slender dogs with bushy tails. They are distinguished from most other members of the dog family by their gray upperparts, buff neck and black-tipped tail. Males are slightly larger than females. Gray foxes range from 800 to 1125 mm in length. Their tails measure 275 to 443 mm and their hindfeet measure 100 to 150 mm. They weigh 3.6 to 6.8 kg.

Where in the world do they live?

Gray foxes occur throughout most of the southern half of North America from southern Canada to northern Venezuela and Colombia. They do not occur in portions of the mountainous northwestern United States, the Great Plains and eastern Central America.

What kind of habitat do they need?

Gray foxes are found in deciduous woodlands, but are occasionally seen in old fields foraging for fruits and insects. Unlike red foxes, they do not prefer agricultural habitats.

How do they reproduce?

Gray foxes are monogamous; each has only a single mate.

The breeding season of gray foxes varies by location. In Michigan, gray foxes mate in early March; in Alabama, breeding peaks occur in February. Where red foxes and gray foxes occur together, gray foxes breed 2 to 4 weeks after the red foxes. Pregnancy lasts about 53 days; the average litter size is 3.8 and ranges from 1 to 7. By 3 months, pups begin to hunt with their parents. After four months, the young have their permanent teeth and can forage on their own. The family group remains together until autumn when the young reach sexual maturity and leave their parents.

Male and female gray foxes both provide protection for their offspring. Female gray foxes nurse their young until the young are able to hunt for themselves, when they are about four months old.

How long do they live?

Gray foxes may live 6 to 10 years in the wild.

How do they behave?

Gray foxes are unique among members of the dog family in their ability to climb trees. They have strong, hooked claws that allow them to scramble up trees to avoid predators or to get fruit. They climb down by jumping from branch to branch. Gray foxes are active at night or around dawn and dusk and den during the day in hollow trees, stumps or old woodchuck burrows. Radio tracking data suggest that different family groups have separate home ranges.

How do they communicate with each other?

Like all members of the dog family, gray foxes have excellent senses of sight and smell. They most likely communicate with one another through scent marking, as do other dogs.

What do they eat?

Gray foxes hunt alone and eat a wide variety of food. The most important food source for gray foxes is probably the eastern cottontail, but voles, field mice, shrews, and birds are readily captured and eaten. Gray foxes supplement their diet with whatever fruits are readily available and generally eat more vegetable matter than red foxes.

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

Large carnivores such as lynx, bobcats, and coyotes may prey on gray foxes, but it has not actually been documented that this is the case.

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

Gray foxes impact their ecosystem as consumers of many different species of prey.

Do they cause problems?

Gray foxes will occasionally eat poultry and game birds, but they are not a serious threat to either.

How do they interact with us?

Gray foxes are hunted primarily for sport as their pelts are not very valuable. The may help control populations of rodents that are damaging to agriculture or transmit disease.

Are they endangered?

This species is currently not of any special conservation concern.

Contributors

Sharon Jansa (author), University of Minnesota: June, 1999.

Allison Poor (editor), University of Michigan: March, 2005.

References

Baker, R.H. (1983) Michigan Mammals. Michigan State University Press (Detroit).

Fritzell, E.K and K.J. Haroldson (1982) Urocyon cinereoargenteus. Mammalian Species (189:1-8). American Society of Mammalogists.

Kurta, A. 1995. Mammals of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.