Fox Classification

F o x

The fox is a scavenger, generally found in urban city areas in the northern Hemisphere. The fox is a nocturnal mammal, meaning that the fox only goes out a night to hunt for prey and fox is a omnivorous animal belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. 

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Canidae

A fox is generally smaller than other members of the dog family like wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. For specific it is small-to-medium-sized. Most foxes are about the size of a large house cat. Foxes can range in height from 35 to 45 inches and weigh approximately 15 pounds. Foxes can be a pest in the cities as foxes are often seen tearing into rubbish.

Fox has many similarities with cats – such as vertical slit eyes, retractable claws, flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or brush). Foxes are excellent tree climbers, and they mark their territory by the scent of urine. They also hunt like a cat, stalking their prey and playing with it before killing it.

Foxes live all over North America. They adapt very easily and can manage in a dense forest or a suburban neighborhood. They make their home under sheds, in the hollow of trees, in ground burrows, and in wood piles.

The fox is also found in the more rural areas of the Northern hemisphere, although fox numbers in the countryside are outnumbered by fox numbers in cities as due to the foxes scavenging nature, food is more readily available in the urban streets.

Foxes are carnivores, which means they eat meat. Their diet includes rodents, rabbits, insects and small birds. If they live near a farm, they will raid the hen house and steal the chickens. They will also eat vegetation. The wild fox hunts for the mouse and other small mammals and birds, but foxes appear to enjoy all species of insect.

Wild foxes tend live for around 6-7 years, but some foxes have been known to be older than 13 in captivity. For the usual fox, they have a lifespan of 2 to 5 years but some have lived to be 14 years old in captivity.

Foxes breed between December and February. In the spring, the female may produce a litter of 4 to 5 kits. The kits have no fur and are blind. The mother has her litter in a den. She does not leave the den for the first two weeks after the cubs are born. The female nurses her kits. When the kits are about 4 weeks old they begin to venture out of the den. They will leave their mother sometime between 6 and 12 months of age. A fox can mate when they reach 10 months of age.

The fox does not live in a pack. It lives and hunts alone. When a group of foxes 

are together it is called a “skulk.”

A fox’s hearing is so sharp they can hear a watch ticking 40 yards away. They can also hear something moving underground. They also use a variety to sounds to communicate.

Foxes are able to run between 30 and 40 miles per hour at their fastest depending on the breed. For example, the common red fox has a top running speed of approximately 48 kilometers per hour, which is around 30 miles per hour. The kit fox, or swift fox, can run up to 23 mph for short distances. Another example is the gray fox that runs at around 42 miles per hour at its fastest speed.

Coyotes, wolves, eagles and the lynx are all natural enemies of the fox.

There are around 12-21 different species of fox found around the world, which include the urban fox or red fox, the beautifully white Arctic Fox, the sand fox which is a light-coloured fox found in desert regions and the tiny yet big eared fennec fox.

Red Fox

Arctic Fox

Fennec Fox

Foxes in Europe have been the victims of fox hunting, an extremely controversial sport that involves humans on horses hunting out the fox, lead by a pack of hound dogs which would find the fox by following the scent of the fox. Fox hunting in this manner is now illegal, although it is still allowed if the sport only contains humans on horseback, without the use of their clever but somewhat vicious dogs.