Understanding and Appreciating Farm Wildlife: Red Fox

Except for humans, red foxes are the most widespread mammal across the northern hemisphere. They are found in northern Africa, throughout Europe and temperate Asia, in addition to North America. Being extremely adaptable, red foxes live in starkly different habitats, from the Arctic tundra to arid deserts.

To us in Illinois, all this seems improbable because we see them so at home in our countryside. We claim them as our own, an animal of open agricultural fields that spends extended periods of time in wooded areas only when severe winter weather forces them into cover for food and shelter. Although, on occasion, red foxes den out and raise young on the edges of wooded areas.

For most of the year, pastures, hayfields, corn and soybean fields, and drainage ditches are in the daily itinerary of a red fox. Even when hunting in winter during dawn’s first light, they can be seen canvasing picked corn and combined soybean fields until they take a mid-morning nap in full view, often on the warm, sunny side of a pile of bean straw or next to a clump of Johnson grass. We seldom see them, sleeping right under our noses. Pick a high vantage point on an open section of land, and scan the area with binoculars. You may be surprised!

Of particular interest around farmsteads were the orchards, straw stacks and manure piles of days-gone-by. Such icons of historic farms provided food and rest, particularly for reds that were more at ease around humans. Chicken coups were attractive, but not to the extent often thought of by some farmers with itchy trigger fingers.

Old apple and pear orchards attracted red foxes for the fruit, mice, voles and rabbits. Straw stacks were another draw, both to crawl up on to rest and to dig into the edges for mice. Manure piles some distance behind the barn were “sleepers” in more ways than one. Some farmers never saw red foxes there—possibly their most favorite place to take an undetected nap in winter, a bed warmed by decomposing manure and waste feed.

Some red foxes are more tolerant of humans, probably because they have less adrenaline—the fight or flight hormone. Such are the findings of recent studies that were spurred on by attempts of the Russian geneticist Dmitry K. Belyaev in the 1950s to breed a more docile silver fox for fur farms. This comfort around humans, along with attempts to escape the increased coyote predation of recent decades, has caused more red foxes to move into urban environments. There, in and on the edges of towns, they continue to live. However, in the last few years, it seems that more reds are being seen back in the countryside. We can only speculate as to why. Are they learning to exist with coyotes? Or, are rural numbers increasing just because of the ebb and flow of population dynamics? Or, is it something else?

As would be expected, a species that is so adaptable to different habitats has a variety of foods and feeding habits. Adult red foxes seldom go hungry. Small rodents are high on their list, along with eggs in nests. Fruits and berries—both fresh and fallen—are eaten. Small birds, gamebirds, even poultry are caught. On occasion, carrion is consumed. Waste grain in fall and winter is also on their plate.

For the most part, foxes are figuratively one jump ahead of hunger: literally if you’ve watched them hunting mice or voles in grassy areas, even when covered with snow. However, during long periods of severe winter weather, they are sometimes taxed to the limit. Waste grain may be one of few options. A fox will dig through a covering of ice and snow for a dropped ear of corn, consuming nearly every kernel.

Seemingly, red foxes are good at sensing oncoming bad winter storms. Just a few days before a storm breaks, foxes are much more active, constantly hunting so they can lay low with full stomachs during and shortly after the storm.

Breeding season usually begins in late December. After a two-month gestation period, pups are born in March or April in dens often dug by other animals, in culverts and under little used or abandoned buildings. Usually, four or five pups are born, sometimes more. The male is very attentive, feeding the vixen in the den for several days before and after she gives birth. She remains in the den for several days to keep the newly born warm. Pups emerge from the den in four to five weeks. Their first solid food is usually regurgitated by the vixen. Both parents hunt and bring food to the den where pups vigorously fight over it. Young pups usually play with the leavings. By 8 to 10 weeks of age, pups are weaned. The family group stays together and hunts until fall. The fully mature males and females then disperse.

Males take parenting seriously. In addition to feeding the denned vixen just before and after pups are born, males, along with the vixen, hunt and feed the pups as they emerge from the den. Males continue rearing responsibilities until fall. Circumstantial, anecdotal observations suggest that the male may sometimes care for pups when the vixen has been killed—even before pups are completely weaned. See the sidebar, “Old Reynard to the Rescue.”

Across the northern hemisphere, red foxes seen in various habitats may be viewed in a different light. To us in Illinois, we imagine red foxes running across a pasture at dawn, at the edge of an autumn orchard, or making a leisurely inspection across a golf course in the day’s last light. However, humans everywhere have a similar view in common— that of a smart and strikingly beautiful animal. Red foxes are special. Possibly, no other creature of field, forest, or desert is the subject of so much mythology and folklore flowing out of such diverse human cultures.

---

Robert J. Reber is an emeritus faculty member in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been a lifelong student of many aspects of the Natural World, including archaeology. Reber has served as a managing editor and author for publications such as The Illinois Steward and the Illinois Master Naturalist Curriculum Guide.