Foxes

Adapted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia CD-ROM.
Copyright © 1994, 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

Foxes are closely related to dogs and jackals. They live in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some close relatives live in South America. In most regions where the fox has forest cover, it has survived in spite of hunting, trapping, and poisoning.

In North America the most abundant species is the red fox. A grown male is about 41 inches (104 centimeters) long, including its 16-inch (40-centimeter) bushy tail. The upper parts are reddish yellow. The under parts and tip of the tail are white. The feet and the lower forelegs are black. The common fox of Europe has similar markings.

The black, or silver, fox has black fur, tipped with gray. It is rarely found wild, and its fur once sold for enormous prices. Today silver foxes are raised on farms in several parts of the world. Other foxes that are hunted or raised for their fur include the arctic fox, the blue fox, the gray fox, and the cross fox. (See also Furs.)

All foxes commonly live in burrows though they sometimes make their homes in hollow stumps or rock crevices. They hide by day, and by night they hunt birds and small animals, such as gophers and rabbits. Occasionally they eat frogs, fish, insects, and berries. Among the calls of the fox are a quick yapping bark and a shrill howl. The female fox, called a vixen, utters a piercing yelp at mating time. She bears her young in the spring. There are from three to nine in a litter. The scientific name of the European red fox is Vulpes vulpes; of the American red fox, Vulpes fulva; of the arctic fox, Alopex lagopus.