Red Fox

 

Red fox takes a fall stroll on Isle Royale.

NPS/Amie Heeter

 

A Curious Canine

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) has a reputation of being a smart, cunning, and sly opportunist. The grey wolf and the red fox are the only Isle Royale members of the canine family. The red fox has become a regular part of visitors’ experiences and are often seen on trails and near campgrounds. Red foxes have been able to adapt to life on the island by using their intelligence and wide diet to not only successfully survive here, but to excel. They have adapted well to the presence of people in their territory and to the harsh environment of Isle Royale National Park.

 

Red fox gets cozy with its winter coat of fur.

NPS/ISRO

Characteristics

Red foxes can have a coat that may vary in color from a rusty reddish color to a darker grey or brown, and possibly silver tipped. All coat colors come with a white underside, chin and throat, pointed ears, and white-tipped tails. Adult foxes growing up to 14-20 inches tall and 18-35 inches long with long tails. Their most prominent feature, their tail, can commonly be as long as half of their body length. They use this long appendage in the cold winter wind to cover the bare skin of their nose and foot pads.

 

Breeding Behavior

• Adult red foxes are usually solitary until the mating season.
• Mating season is from late January into February.
• Female foxes are called vixens.
• Vixens reach sexual maturity at the age of 9-10 months old.
• Vixens will breed once a year.
• Vixens give birth to a litter of 1-10 kits.
• Gestation lasts 51-53 days.
• Kits are born in a den and emerge at one month of age with their eyes, ears, teeth, and color already developed.
• Parent foxes begin feeding solid food to the kits once they are out of the den.
• Kits grow to adult size by the age of 6-7 months old.
• Male foxes stay with the vixen and litter until the kits are independent.

 

There are no limits to red fox's curiosity. Fox seen here investigating Windigo Visitor Center for food scraps.

NPS/Kaitlyn Knick

Finding Fox

The red fox is an omnivore canine that consumes any food item that is available. Understanding their eating habits, and where that food exists on the islands, explains where you see them. Foxes on Isle Royale can be found:

• Along forest edges

• In open areas

  • where they hunt red squirrels, deer mice, snowshoe hares, ground-nesting birds, snakes, and salamanders.

• Around carcasses of deceased moose and fish.

• Campgrounds: fox forage for food around human activity looking for human food remnants. Please do not feed any fox!

 

• 

  Beaver

  Beaver create important aquatic habitat for other island creatures.

• 

  Moose

  Moose are the largest mammal on Isle Royale.

• 

  Wolves

  Wolves have been the apex predator on Isle Royale since 1948.