Red foxes are recognizable by their reddish-orange fur, bushy white-tipped tails, and black ears and feet. But did you know some red foxes are golden, silver, or even black?
The red fox is the largest of all foxes. Their bodies are 45-90 cm (1.5-3 ft.) long, and their tails are 30-55 cm (1-1.8 ft.). They weigh 3-14 kg (6.5-31 lb.).
Most Widespread Carnivore
Red foxes are also the most widespread meat-eating mammals in the world! They live in the Arctic Circle, North America, Europe, central Asia, and northern Africa. They also live in Australia and the Falkland Islands as an introduced species.
Part of the reason red foxes are so widespread is because they are very adaptable to different habitats. They can live in forests, grasslands, mountains, deserts, wetlands, urban and suburban areas, and farmlands.
Are Red Foxes Dogs or Cats?
Related to dogs, red foxes are in the canid family. But these canines do share some similarities with cats, such as excellent night vision and retractable claws.
Night Vision
Red foxes have great night vision because they have a special mirror-like layer of cells behind the retinas in their eyes called a tapetum lucidum.
These cells reflect light back through the retina, which doubles the amount of light and allows for a clear image even in low light conditions.
This is why many nocturnal animals seem to have glowing eyes at night. The light reflects off of the tapetum lucidum in their eyes.
How Red Foxes Move
Red foxes can reach speeds up to 65 km/h (40 mph). They use their bushy tails as rudders to help steady them as they change direction while running.
They are also fantastic jumpers, leaping as high as 2 m (6.5 ft) and easily clearing most fences.
Red foxes can even swim if they need to!
What Red Foxes Eat
Red foxes prefer to eat rodents and rabbits. However, they will eat almost anything, including birds, fruits and vegetables, fish, frogs, worms, and even garbage!
Their ability to eat a wide range of food allows them to survive in many different environments.
How Red Foxes Hunt
Unlike most canines, red foxes are solitary hunters. They are very stealthy, hiding behind trees or in tall grass and then pouncing on their prey.
They have good vision and a good sense of smell. But they also have excellent hearing. When they cannot see their prey due to tall grass or a thick blanket of snow, they use their hearing to home in on the location of their prey.
Their ears can swivel independently, and when they hear rustling in the grass or under the snow, they tilt their heads so their ears are at different heights. This helps them locate the source of the sound because the sound reaches their ears at different times and at different intensities.
Then they leap high in the air and dive head first into the snow or grass to capture their prey. When a fox makes this high pounce, it’s called “mousing.”
One study showed that foxes were 73% successful in catching their prey hidden under the snow when they faced in a northeasterly direction (toward the North Pole) before pouncing.
The scientists of the study believe that red foxes can actually see the earth’s magnetic field as a ringed shadow when they face north. And they use the shadow as a range finder in conjunction with their hearing to calculate the distance of their prey.
How Red Foxes Communicate
Both male and female red foxes use scent markings to make their presence known to other foxes. They urinate on trees and rocks. Male fox urine has a very strong skunky smell, which they use to mark their hunting ground territory.
Red foxes also have twenty different kinds of calls, including screams, shrieks, barks, yips and howls.
They also communicate using their tails. Red foxes may wag their tails to show excitement, or they may raise their tails high in the air to show dominance.
Reproduction
Red foxes mate in the winter. The female fox, called a vixen, will build a den either by digging her own or using another animal’s burrow. Manytimes, foxes make their dens under sheds and porches.
After a gestation period of 51 to 53 days, the vixen will give birth to a litter of 1-12 babies, called pups or kits.
The kits are brownish-gray and blind when they’re first born. After about 9-14 days, they open their eyes. Their red (or golden, silver, or black) coats grow in by one month.
At that time, the kits venture out of the den. Both parents care for them until the fall, when the young foxes are ready to live on their own.
In the wild, red foxes live two to four years. Predators include coyotes, wolves, bears, mountain lions, eagles and eagle-owls.
Conservation Status
Red foxes are considered a species of least concern by the IUCN Red List, and their population is stable.
They are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and they are also hunted for sport, as pests, or as carriers of rabies.
What You Can Do to Help
If you would like to help red foxes, don’t use rodenticides. These poisons not only kill mice and rats, they also kill the foxes that eat them.
Red Fox Range
More Red Fox Resources
- National Geographic: Red Fox
- VIDEO: “Fox hunts prey deep under snow.” Nature on PBS
- VIDEO: “How foxes use magnetic fields to catch prey. ” The Wonder of Animals: Episode 5, BBC
- Edwards, Lin. “Predation by foxes aided by Earth’s magnetic field.” Phys.org
- Winer, Jed. “Outfoxed.” National Geographic Kids. December 2024 / January 2025
- Animal Diversity Web: Vulpes vulpes
- National Park Service: Species Spotlight – Red Fox
Quick Fact Sheet
Common Name(s): Red Fox
Scientific Name: Vulpes vulpes
Animal Type: mammal
Size: 45-90 cm (1.5-3 ft.) long; Tail: 30-55 cm (1-1.8 ft.)
Weight: 3-14 kg (6.5-31 lb.)
Lifespan: 2-4 years
Conservation Status: Least Concern
About the Author
Abi Cushman is a contributing editor of Animal Fact Guide and My House Rabbit. When she's not writing about weird animal facts, Abi writes and illustrates funny books for kids. Her picture books, Soaked! and Animals Go Vroom!, are available now from Viking Children's Books.
To learn more and to download free activity sheets, visit www.abicushman.com. Follow her on Instagram at @Abi.Cushman.
