Florida Red Fox - *Actually a Gray Fox

09.22.2006 - Look at this foxy animal. It's a fox. A Florida Red Fox. A Vulpes vulpes fulva. Of course, it happens to be mostly gray in color. But then, I've seen Eastern Gray Squirrels that are red in color. Color names are often misleading. It's true that I once saw a dog named Old Yeller, and the thing was in fact yeller, but I also once saw a dog named blue, and the thing was boring old brown. I've even seen rednecks whose necks were in fact a pasty peach color. You can't always trust a name. But this Florida Red Fox is in fact a fox in Florida, so the name is 2/3 correct.

I did not set out to catch a fox, I was really seeking opossum. But when I saw this fox in the box, I thought, "A fox! That rocks!" I think that most fox like to eat stuff like freshly killed rabbits, but apparently this one liked freshly killed marshmallows. It's possible that it entered the trap based on the scent of a previous animal, a prey item such as an opossum, and I suspect this is what a biologist would tell me. But why then, Mr. Arrogant Biologist, did I observe that all of the marshmallows were gone, presumably eaten by the fox? I suspect that urban fox have, like many animals, learned to adapt to the human presence encroaching on their habitat, and have started to scavenge.

This fox, like many Florida mammals, has a mangy coat. Up north, it's nice to wear a luxurious thick red coat. Mmm-mmmm! Them thick red coats is snuggly warm. But down here in Florida the foxes wear thin, scraggly, whispy crap coats. So perhaps this fox isn't so foxy after all.

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*UPDATE - It turns out that I don't know my foxes after all. A more well-educated reader sent me this:

Hello David (and company),

I love the photos on your website. You have some nice ones. I especially like the hatchling coral snake draped over your nose. I noticed another photo in which an adult coral snake appears to be climbing your shirt, but okay, the little one is dead. I believe you. ;-)

But that's not why I wrote. I wrote because I believe you have identified a grey fox as a red fox. I will tell you why in a moment, but since native grey foxes are on the decline in most of the country due to the introduction the red fox, being able to tell them apart might make a difference in how you handle them.

Here is why it's not a red fox:
The legs and feet of a red fox are invariably black in all color phases (red, silver, black and crossover phases).
The white under the red fox's chin extends under the belly (except in solid black individuals, which you don't have)
The red fox has black-tipped ears
The red fox has a white tipped tail.

Here is why it is a grey fox:
The legs and feet of the grey fox are grey and rust in color, not black.
The grey fox has a white bib only, which does not extend past the neck. It is delineated by a an area of rust at the sides and bottom, and by grey to black eye stripes at the top.
The grey fox has rust on the backs of its ears, no black
The very tip of the grey fox's tail is dark grey or black, not white.
The grey fox has rust along the sides of the face/neck, belly, underside of tail, and on the legs
The grey fox has grey to black eye stripes that extend back from the eyes along the top of the white bib.
The grey fox usually has a black stripe down the top of its tail, but it might be dark grey, it ends in the dark tip at the end of the tail.
You might have noticed how catlike this fox's movements are. From a distance, people often mistake them for cats because of this. They can even climb trees under the right circumstances. I don't believe red foxes ever climb trees, and the movements are more dog-like.

So there you have it. Grey foxes are way cooler than red foxes, and much less common in most parts of the country, so congratulations on your catch, and I hope you found him a good place to make a new home.

I might also be able to offer some insight into your little fox's appetite for marshmallows. Although generally thought of as carnivores, both red and grey foxes are really omnivores with a preference for meat. The grey fox (or gray fox) eats more vegetation than the red fox, but I don't think either would pass up a high-value treat like a marshmallow (high value in nature means high calories or nutrients, so one man's junk food might be a fox's feast). I couldn't tell you whether an exotic species like the African Painted Dog or the Maned Wolf (a fox-like canid of South America) would put its nose up at a marshmallow, but most canids are really omnivores rather than carnivores, and vegetables, bugs, fruit, tubers -- even grass and grain (or the occasional marshmallow) are included in their diets.

Karin

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In Florida, there are many both urban and exotic animal species, but it’s useful to understand just exactly what each is. Here, we talk about the red fox, the gray fox, and just exactly where the lines may be blurred on the two of them.

Firstly, we’ll talk about the classic red fox that everyone knows and loves. This little animal has the appearance of a small dog and can weigh from 10 to 15 pounds overall. It can measure up to 2 feet long and another foot of tail added on. The tail itself ends with black, and a white tip, but the rest of it, and the entire body too, is a rusty red color. The ‘red’ color though can vary from a golden light color, all the way to a dark chestnut. The red fox is essentially a nocturnal animal, but can occasionally feed at dawn and dusk, and rarely in the day. However, the important thing to note about this fox is that it isn’t native to Florida, and can, therefore, be quite rare in most of the area, except for the Northern Panhandle. It was introduced to the area by hunting clubs and is now found rarely around the state, typically upland feeding in areas of fields. Unlike the gray fox, it avoids heavily-wooded areas.

The red fox is often misidentified. Firstly, as it was artificially introduced, it can be quite rare to see. On top of this, the gray fox frequently has a lot of red hair on it, so many people think that this particular fox is the red fox. If you see a fox in the wild, never be quick to assume that it is a red one, as you may be entirely wrong more often than not, with the gray fox often being called the ‘red-sided gray’.

An adult gray fox can weigh between 7 to 13 pounds, and measure up to 40 inches, with a 12-inch tail. The females are slightly smaller than the males. The hair on their backs is tipped with black and can seem to be a black mane. The face, back, sides, and tail can all seem to be a composition of grays, while the under-side is white and sides a yellowy-red color. It's the only member of the dog family that can climb trees, and they’re also essentially nocturnal. The only separator in Florida is that it likes wooded areas, in opposition to the red fox!

Other than the few small pointers of color, and their difference in habitat, there really isn't too much to set the two of them apart. For this reason, they are misidentified often, and while it may be amusing to think that, it also makes it difficult for them to be distinguished. When thinking of natives to Florida, don’t assume that the red fox is one of them! These are a few useful and fun little snippets of information to help you on your way and to be aware of the distinction between the two in the future.