Red Fox Feral Fox

Photo: Red fox in profile

The European red fox is a medium-sized omnivore with rusty reddish-brown fur, large ears with excellent hearing, and a large, bushy, white-tipped tail. It has an acute muzzle (a 'fox face'), a black nose, yellow eyes, and vertical cat-like pupils. It is 90-105 cm (36-42 inches) in length from nose to tail and weighs 5-6 kg. Its large bushy tail helps the fox balance, acts as a warm blanket to snuggle into when sleeping in cold weather, and is used as a signal flag to other foxes. Foxes have long, sharp teeth and sharp, extendible claws, making them excellent grabbers, climbers, and burrowers. Foxes can also run at speeds of up to 48 kph (30 mph), a great asset in catching prey. The fox is a solitary animal that may travel up to 15 kilometres within its home range in a single foray. While classified as nocturnal animals, foxes are, in fact, crepuscular. That is, they are most active during the evening and early mornings.

Photo: Red fox running

The red fox is a member of the Canidae family, which also includes wolves, coyotes, jackals, dingoes, and domestic dogs. It also shares many characteristics with cats, such as cat-like eyes and whiskers, retractable claws, climbing trees, and being mainly active at night. The red fox's scientific name is Vulpes vulpes.

While classified as nocturnal animals, foxes are, in fact, crepuscular. That is, they are most active during the evening and early mornings.

In Australia red foxes also called Feral Foxes and European Red Foxes. These wild foxes kill large numbers of native Australian animals and have been responsible for the extinction of many Australian animals and are classified as a pest. Foxes alone kill about 300 million native animals a year in Australia.

Red Fox Sounds

Video: Listen to the sounds foxes make

Foxes have approximately 28 different vocalizations that include greetings, threats, defensive sounds, excitement, fighting, and submissive calls. The most commonly heard vocalizations from red foxes are quick series of barks and eerie, scream-like howls. These vocalizations are higher-pitched, almost sounding like yippy ow-wow-wow-wow sounds. Sometimes, the fox's bark is mistaken for an owl hooting.

Foxes Can Climb Trees

Yes, foxes can climb trees! They are lightweight, agile, have semi-retractable claws, and  strong legs with flexible ankles. These adaptations allow foxes to climb trees in search of young birds, eggs and even a baby koala.

Red Fox Habitat

Photo: Red fox habitat and distribution map

The red fox's natural habitat is in the northern hemisphere, including Europe, temperate Asia, northern Africa, and North America. Since 1855, red foxes have also inhabited Australia where they have adapted to many different Australian habitats, ranging from deserts to arid areas to alpine regions to farmland and even suburbia. They are widely distributed, except in the wet tropics.

Foxes have defined home ranges that can vary in size from 2 to 5 square kilometres, depending on the type of habitat, fox population density, and the availability of food. They mark their territory with urine, scats (droppings), and secretions from their anal glands. Foxes defend their territories with both aggressive and non-aggressive gestures and vocalizations.

During the day, a red fox rests hidden away in a tree or log hollow, in abandoned rabbit burrows, or in dense undergrowth. It may have several such resting places throughout its home range.

Red Fox Diet & Hunting

Photo: Fox pouncing on its prey

Foxes have a varied diet, including rabbits, rodents, frogs, birds, insects, eggs, lizards, fruit, and even human waste. They are opportunistic predators with indiscriminate eating habits, consuming about 0.5 kilograms of food each day. When food is plentiful, the majority of a fox's diet consists of meat, with rabbits, rodents, birds, and small mammals being the main sources. During times of food shortage, they are less discerning, eating whatever is available, including a large percentage of insects and plant matter. Foxes are solitary animals that set out on their hunting forays in the evening or early morning. In a single foray, they may travel up to 15 kilometres within their home range in search of food.

When hunting, foxes target animals under 5 kilograms in weight, killing by attacking the head and neck. They may not consume their prey entirely and can be wasteful predators, leaving large portions of their victims uneaten. Foxes can exhibit surplus killing behaviour, unnecessarily killing additional animals beyond their immediate dietary requirements, which has contributed significantly to the decline of many native animals.

Foxes also cache food by burying it in several locations for future consumption but frequently do not retrieve it, resulting in wasted food.

Red Fox Reproduction

Photo: Fox pups (also called kits or cubs)

Female foxes, also known as vixens, mate once a year during the mating season, from mid-June to the end of July. During this time, they form social groups, which consist of a dominant male and female, as well as several subordinate females. The subordinate females do not produce litters themselves, but they help rear the young of the dominant female instead. Male and female foxes form monogamous pairs during this time.

After a gestation period of approximately 53 days, the vixen gives birth to a litter of 4 to 6 blue-grey coloured babies, called kits. The vixen stays in the den for the first two weeks after the birth of her kits to feed and protect them. During this time, the male fox brings her food and regurgitates it to feed her. When the kits are about two weeks old, the vixen leaves them alone in their den while she goes hunting. At about three weeks old, the kits start consuming regurgitated food provided by their mother. When they are about five weeks old, the kits begin to make their first tentative moves out of the den. Around nine weeks old, they abandon the den and start to live on the surface. At about three months of age, they start hunting for small prey and are entirely independent by about nine months, setting out to establish themselves in new home ranges of their own. Young foxes reach sexual maturity in 9-10 months and are ready for the next mating season.

The average life span of a red fox is between 2 to 3 years.

How Did Red Foxes get to Australia?

Photo: The sport of fox hunting

The European red fox (Feral foxes) was first introduced on the island of Tasmania, Australia in 1833  for the recreational sport of fox hunting. These animals did not survive in their new environment because the native Tasmanian Devil, found only on this island, out-competed the fox. In 1855, foxes were again introduced near Melbourne, Victoria, by wealthy pastoralists for the sport of fox hunting. In 1871, additional foxes were released in Geelong and Ballarat.

Tasmanian Devil Outfoxed the Fox

The fox has never established itself in Tasmania. It seems that the more aggressive Tasmanian Devil found there outfoxed the fox by out-competing it as a hunter and scavenger, including digging up and consuming the fox's cached food supply. This is a rare example where a native Australian animal has succeeded against an introduced one.

Red Fox Spreads Throughout Australia

Photo: Fox chasing a rabbit

Once introduced, foxes spread rapidly throughout the Australian mainland. They were reported in New South Wales by 1893, South Australia by 1901, Queensland by 1907 and Western Australia by 1912. Within twenty years of their introduction, foxes were so numerous and destructive that they were officially declared a pest in Victoria. Within just 100 years of their first release in Australia, they had spread across vast distances of thousands of kilometres. Their expansion closely matched the spread of rabbits, another introduced animal also released in Geelong, Victoria, in 1859. This rapid expansion was due to two reasons. Firstly, foxes were following a plentiful food supply, namely rabbits. Secondly,  humans continued to intentionally introduce foxes into areas that they had not been in before to control the population explosion of rabbits. Unfortunately, the fox was also devouring native wildlife at prodigious rates.

Today, there are over 7.5 million feral foxes in Australia.

Red Fox Impact on Australian Ecosystem

Photo: Fox with its pry - a bandicoot

The red foxes are causing significant harm to Australian wildlife. They are indiscriminate feeders and wreak havoc on native wildlife not accustomed to predators like the fox. Many native animals, including ground-nesting birds such as the night parrot, as well as animals like quokkas, wallabies, and native rodents, many of which are endangered or vulnerable, fall prey to the fox. It has been suggested that foxes contributed to the extinction of the Desert rat-kangaroo. The red foxes directly threaten the survival of 48 types of mammals, 14 species of birds, 12 varieties of reptiles, and two types of amphibians. These foxes have already contributed to the extinction of several native animals.

In addition to harming wildlife, foxes also cause significant economic losses to farmers by preying on poultry, young lambs, and goats. An unsubstantiated claim puts the total annual cost of foxes to Australia’s environment and economy at $227.5 million annually.

Because of its destructive nature, the European red fox has been declared an invasive species, pest, and vermin in Australia.