Common Gray Fox

Also known as
Island gray fox, Tree fox (Nowak, 1991)
What is the scientific name?
Urocyon cinereoargenteus
Where are they located? How many subspecies are there?
Gray foxes are found in most of the United States except Washington and portions of the northern Rockies and Great Basin. There are 16 subspecies of the gray fox and seven of them occur in the United States. They are U.c. borealis, U.c. cinereoargenteus, U.c. floridanus, U.c. ocythous, U.c. scottii, U.c. californicus, and U.c. townsendi which occurs in Oregon (Hall 1981).
Where do they live?
Chaparral, open forests, and brushy areas associated with rugged, rocky terrain (Burt 1976; Fritzell and Haroldson 1982).
What do they look like?
Silvery-gray above, whitish underneath. Portions of the sides sometimes appear a reddish color. The throat and jaws are white. The neck, cheeks and back of the head are reddish. The tail has a black tip with a black stripe running its length (compare this to the red fox).
How big are they?
Males are slightly larger. Total length is between 31 and 44 inches (Hall 1981). Males weigh between 7 and 13 pounds, females between 7 and 11 pounds (Sheldon 1992).
How long do they live?
The average life expectancy of the gray fox is four years (Samuel and Nelson, 1982). Gray foxes may live 14 to 15 years in the wild (Seton 1929). In captivity, they have lived up to 10 years (Burt 1976). Between 43% and 47% of new born gray foxes die in their first seven months (Fritzell and Haroldson 1982). The oldest recorded captive gray fox lived 13 years, 8 months (Nowak 1991).
What do they eat?
The gray fox is omnivorous and opportunistic (Sheldon 1992) but the actual diet depends on the season and locality. One study found that rabbits were the primary food source in the winter, but fruits were more important in the summer (Fritzell and Haroldson 1982). Small mammals such as mice, squirrels, rats, woodchucks, and gophers are also an important food source. They also have been known to eat opossums and deer carrion (Sheldon 1992). Plants and fruits consumed by the gray fox include persimmons, apples, juniper, pears, grains, corn, and grasses (Fritzell and Haroldson 1982; Sheldon 1992). Insects are also eaten and can make up to 41% (by volume) of the gray fox's diet (Sheldon 1992).

Interesting notes: The gray fox is most active at night, dusk, and dawn (Nowak 1991). This is the only member of the Canid Family in North America that can climb trees (Whitaker 1980) and the ability to do so comes in very handy. The gray fox can not run for long periods of time, relative to the red fox's ability, and often seeks refuge in trees from threatening predators. It appears to be quite at home in trees and can move around by jumping from branch to branch. Gray foxes have been known to take naps in trees and have even been found sleeping in abandoned hawks nests (Maser 1981).

Gray foxes sometimes act as prey for mountain lions, eagles and coyotes, but no predator has the impact on it that people do. Between 1979 and 1980 approximately 370,000 gray foxes were killed in the United States as an attempt to manage the population (Sheldon 1992). While this may reduce some predation by foxes on domestic animals, the effects can sometimes produce another problem.

When gray foxes were eliminated from a region of Virginia it caused the weasel population to explode, resulting in problems for a nearby turkey farm. Without gray foxes to compete with, the weasels suddenly found themselves with an abundance of food. The turkey farmers got rid of one predator but created another. The weasel population subsequently declined when gray foxes were reestablished (Fritzell and Haroldson 1982).

Last updated April 15, 2006
Back to Wildlife of the Rogue Valley Home Page
Copyright 2006, by Jim Rible