Red Fox
Vulpes vulpes
Also known as: Cross Fox, Silver Fox, Fox, Guineu, Renard Roux
Habitat
Ground
Diet
VertFishScav
Active Time
Nocturnal
Size
5.5 kg
About This Species
An adaptable, mainly nocturnal hunter found in habitats from woodland and farmland to city gardens and parks, most active around dusk and dawn when it forages on the ground for small mammals, invertebrates, fruit and scavenged food. Urban animals are often bold enough to be watched from a window or path at these hours, while rural ones are shyer and best looked for near field edges, hedgerows or known den sites in early morning light.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Watch from several metres away and never offer food, since habituating a wild animal to handouts increases risky encounters with people and traffic and can spread disease between individuals.
- It has no special protected status across most of its very wide range and is managed as a common species in many countries, but deliberately harming or persecuting it is restricted under general animal welfare law in most jurisdictions, so treat any encounter as a look-don't-touch observation, particularly near a den with young.
LCMammaliaCarnivoraCanidae
Seasonal Activity
1,247,297 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Canidae
Traits
- Diet
- VertFishScav
- Foraging
- Ground
- Activity
- Nocturnal
- Body mass
- 5.5 kg
- Home range
- 3.5 km²
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.