The Fox

Fox general physical characteristics

The body of a fox is build to offer it strength and speed. They are very slender animals with a long nose and pointed ears. They have thin legs that are very strong and that can move quickly. The padding on the bottom of their feet allow them to cover any type of terrain without difficulty.

They are able to move at a speed of up to 23 miles per hour. They are very graceful in their movements and can stay at a top speed longer than their prey and most of their predators. This element of speed is key to their overall survival. The strength develops when they are young as they spend time chasing each other round and playing games such as tug of war.

They have a coloring that varies with shades of red and brown. They are also white along the face and belly regions. Some species of fox also have black areas on their bodies. Many species have a long bushy tail. It isn’t used for balance as many people assume. There are scent glands found here that they use to mark territory and for interactions with each other.

The scent glands are what they use for their communications. Since the fox isn’t designed to have much to offer in the way of verbal communication they use these scents to communication. When a fox goes into the territory of another fox they are able to read the blueprint of the fox that is there by those scents.

When they are trying to find a mate, it is the scent that they will use in order to find each other. As the fox moves the scents will be released from various points in the body. They have very sharp teeth in the front and flat ones in the back. This design allows them to be able to consume lots of different types of foods.

They are omnivores which means they consume just about anything. They do feed on rodents and small mammals so they need the sharp teeth to kill them and to rip them into chunks. They also eat beetles, worms, berries, and fruit so the flat teeth allow them to chew up these types of food sources.

They have a coat that is very luxurious and keeps them warm. They will shed their heavy coat in the summer with a new one growing in before winter. The thickness of the coat is often determined by the climate in the area where a given fox resides. Some species of fox live in warmer climates all year long. They won’t develop the longer and thick coat because they don’t have any need for it.

The fact that the fox doesn’t have very many verbal abilities means they have to use others for communication. These scent glands allow them to mark territory and to find a mate. Since the fox is moving around at night, it has very good vision. It also has amazing hearing so that it can find small animals for food that are moving around at night.

The coloring of these animals varies depending on the location where they are found. For example some of them are reddish or brown in color. Others are gray with black. There is also the Arctic Fox that is white to blend in with where it lives.

Now going more in depth:

Height and length

If seen from a distance, the fox might appear as a large animal but in fact, foxes are rather small. Foxes are medium-sized canids, a male weighing 4-8 kilogrammes and a female 4-6 kilogrammes. The length of head and body combined is about 67-72 centimetres in males and about 62-68 centimetres in females. The tail, which is about 40-44 centimetres in males and 37-41 centimetres in females, represents about a third of the total body length of a fox. The body weight varies in different regions and increases from south to north. In North America foxes tend to be smaller than in Europe, so that some researchers have proposed that North American foxes are a different species. In Britain, an average fox is a little bigger than a pet cat.

Social Life

Family Life

Most people that have seen a fox have probably met just one animal on its own. Indeed since foxes travel and hunt on their own, they are said to be solitary animals. This is not to say that they avoid other foxes but to exemplify the fact they do not hunt in packs like some other canids, such as wolves.

For a long time it was believed that foxes lived a solitary life, meeting only during the mating season, but now we know that this is untrue. The dominant male and female fox form a pair that may last for life, i.e. foxes are generally monogamous. The pair travel, hunt and feed independently but occasionally meet, either briefly or for longer periods during which they play or groom each other.

In some areas, such as in urban areas, it is common for some other adult foxes to be present in addition to the breeding pair. These additional animals are subordinate to the dominant pair and generally are offspring of the pair, which remained with their parents past the normal age of dispersal when the family should break up. So, in certain conditions, foxes live in social groups rather than solitarily.

Outside the family

Foxes are territorial animals, i.e. they defend the area where they live against other foxes. That said, the use of scent marking to delimit their own space is a very effective way of communication and neighbours normally avoid meeting each other. If neighbours do meet, these encounters are generally benign, avoiding direct fights. Foxes are more aggressive towards strangers rather than other neighbouring foxes.

Because of this territorial behaviour, if a fox is removed for a length of time from its territory, another fox will move in. This means that eliminating one animal from an area does not eliminate the presence of foxes altogether.

Hunting

Unlike wolves, foxes are solitary hunters which means that even if in some areas they may form groups, they hunt for food on their own. Fox cubs may sometimes be seen playing together with bits of food but this is simply a 'game' and adult foxes have never been reported hunting together. Very occasionally cubs can be seen hunting with the vixen.

Communication

Posture

Foxes communicate with each other in a variety of ways. As in the domestic dog and many other carnivores, many different facial expressions and body postures are used. Friendly greetings such as tail wagging are used when meeting family members, and aggressive behaviour may be directed towards intruding neighbouring foxes.

During the mating season and during the dispersal season, fights are common and sometimes foxes are killed.

Sound

Foxes are mostly silent animals but this does not mean they do not have a broad repertoire of sounds. A wide range of calls is used from cubs' small barks asking for their mother's attention, to warning calls, to barks and screams performed to locate another fox or a mate.

Calls are made all year around but most people hear foxes calling in winter, perhaps because there is less vegetation to muffle the sound.

Fox Vocalization:

Whine - Made shortly after birth. Occurs at a high rate when kits are hungry and when their body temperatures are low. Whining stimulates the mother to care for her young; it also has been known to stimulate the male fox into caring for his mate and kits.
Yelp - Made about 19 days later. The kits whining turns into infantile barks, yelps, which occur heavily during play.
Explosive call - At the age of about one month, the kits can emit an explosive call which is intended to be threatening to intruders or other cubs; a high pitch howl.
Combative call - In adults, the explosive call becomes an open-mouthed combative call during any conflict; a sharper bark.
Growl - An adult fox's indication to their kits to feed or head to the adult's location.
Bark - Adult foxes warn against intruders and in defense by barking.

Smell

Urine and faeces are used to communicate to other group members and to neighbouring foxes. For example, urine is used to mark their home range (the space where an animal lives) and both urine and faeces are used to signal some specific state, such as when females are fertile. The use of smell to communicate information to other animals is called scent marking. Faeces in particular are placed in conspicuous spots where they can easily be found by other foxes, such as on objects, paths, gates or even on food remains.

Foxes also possess various scent glands on their tail, faces, foot pads and just inside their anus. They can either rub themselves or expel the contents of the glands against some objects. They also use their saliva to mark objects, particularly vegetation.

About Senses

The senses of foxes are very different from our own. The main sense with which we perceive the world is sight. We cannot know for sure which is the most important sense to a fox, but both hearing and smell must be important. Their acute hearing is used to hunt small mammals and insects, for example by locating a mouse by the sounds it makes and then pouncing up to 2-3 metres to catch it. Smell is used to communicate but also to locate food. Foxes can detect food in a sealed bag or underground, as any person who has had a buried pet dug up will be able to confirm.

Life Cycle

-Spring:

The females give birth to 4-5 cubs in a den and at the beginning the male brings food to feed her as she rarely leaves the den. The cubs are born blind and deaf and their fur is short and black. For the first few weeks the cubs do not leave the den and are dependent on their mother's warmth.

Progressively, the female spends a greater time away from the den. After about a month, the cubs start emerging from the den and exploring their surroundings. At this stage they start eating solid food and so all adults in a group are busy bringing food to the enlarged family. In spring foxes begin their annual moult.

-Summer:

At the beginning of summer, the female has finished lactating and the breeding den is abandoned.

In mid-summer the adults start bringing less food for the cubs and so the juveniles (youngsters) need to learn to forage for themselves. Towards the end of the summer, the family is increasingly spread over a larger area.

-Autumn:

Already in early autumn, the cubs are fully grown and cannot easily be distinguished from an adult fox. The family group starts to break up, fighting increases and some of the youngsters disperse.

Autumn, as well as winter, are part of the dispersal season. Whilst the adults moult out their old coat in the early summer, the growth of the new coat is not completed until the early autumn. This is when their coats look at their best, and is why most foxes are hunted for their furs in early winter.

-Winter:

This is the mating season and when young foxes disperse from their natal area. Males follow females at close quarters. This is the period when fights and vocalizations are their highest. Towards the end of the winter, the female will look for a suitable den where she can give birth to the cubs.

Mating season:

The mating season only lasts a few weeks, and during this period female foxes come into heat once. Her "oestrus" is short, only about three days.

Pregnacy:

Pregnancy is a little shorter than in the domestic dog, lasting about 53 days.

Dens:

Foxes are not very selective when it comes to dens.

They use earths of other animals (e.g. badger setts), unused or occupied buildings and garden sheds. Dens can be underground or above ground, even in hollow trees or in the branches of dense trees.

Growing up

When fox cubs are born they are completely dependent upon their mother for food and warmth. They are deaf and blind, weigh about 100 grammes, are 10 centimetres long and have short blck fur. For the first couple of weeks the mother rarely leaves them and depends on the male and probably other foxes for food. At this point, the cubs' eyes start to open and they can start exploring their den.

At about four weeks of age, the cubs venture outside but remain very close to the den. They are beginning to moult into a more familiar fur colour. A couple of weeks later the moult is completed, they are covered in different colors of fur (depending on the species) and their faces have a more vulpine shape: the ears and the snout grow longer.

At this stage, cubs are very active, playing for long periods chasing each other or chewing a variety of objects that they find. This is the time when most of the complaints about urban foxes occur as vegetables and plants get flattened or chewed.

When 12 weeks old, the cubs start following the adults more and probably learn where to find food as now they will start foraging for themselves. Many cubs die at this age. By the time they are 16-18 weeks the cubs are able to find food independently from the adults but their movements are still restricted, only covering part of their range. Even by the time they disperse, they are not yet covering the full natal range.

At six months they are hard to tell from the adults and by the age of 10 months they are fully grown and able to breed.

Playing:

The array of play items around a fox den is truly impressive: it ranges from shoes, to golf balls, gloves and puppets, as well as a wide range other food items. Fox cubs also spend long hours play-fighting, chasing each other and playing tug-of-war with food or objects.

What happens with the cubs?

Many more cubs are born than survive. Most cubs never reach their breeding age, dying before they are 10 months old.

A lot of the male cubs and a few of the females still alive at six months of age disperse, leaving their natal area to try to find a suitable territory in which to breed. Surplus animals i.e. those that do not find a territory, generally die younger than territorial animals.