A great friend of Monica and I have had conversations about different subjects we write about and possible new ones. One of those conversations was about a beautiful red fox that keeps coming into his yard and then disappeared for a short time. At first, he thought this beautiful fox could have been taken by wolves or coyotes, but fortunately the red fox finally reappeared. She must have a den near his back yard.

At first, he wondered if the fox was a male or female and the only way to confirm this from a distance is by size. Being the fox was on the smaller size it was determined this was a female because males are larger. We are not sure of this, but one possible reason she was not seen between January and March, could be because during that time period is breeding season for foxes. If this is true, the vixen (female fox) possibly could have 1 to 6 PUPS, or some call them KITS in April or early May. But the number of pups can be determined by the mothers age, health and food availability prior to giving birth.

Fox mate for life and the female will dig a den or use abandoned burrows made by other animals before giving birth. Once born, the kits will stay with mom and nurse (4 weeks) until they can start eating solid food. During this time, the father will bring food to the den while guarding the area from predators, but mom could move her litter to another den if she feels the current den is threatened.

When the pups are around 2 months old, their parents will start leaving small parcels of food in front of the den, coaxing the little ones outside for the first time and see their new surroundings. Then when the pups are around 3 months old, they learn to hunt with mom and dad. Once the young foxes reach 9 months old, some (mostly male) might leave the area to seek its own territory and look for a future mate, while others could stay in the area if the habitat can support them.

Depending on the area that they live, red foxes’ primary diet is mice, rabbits, voles and fruit. Red foxes usually make 1 to 2 kills a week and what they don’t eat, they will bury the remaining food for a later date. But given the chance, they will also dine on whatever they can find in your garbage can.

Here are a few extra facts on red fox.
* Life span in the wild is 2 to 6 years
* Have a great sense of smell.
* Can weigh up to 30 pounds.
* Can run between 20 to 30 mph.
* Can adapt to most environments.
* Prefer to stay dry but are capable of swimming.
* Has great vision but responds mostly to movement.
* Red foxes are the most common and largest of all foxes.
* Average 36 inches in body length, not including their 16″ tails.
* Their main predators are wolves, coyotes, bobcats and eagles.
* If tracking a red fox, their front paws have 5 toes and 4 toes on the back paws.

If the female red fox has a den near our friends back yard and shows up with little ones, we will try to get a few pictures and post them.