There’s a particular thrill at the sight of a fox here in Texas. Darting across a country road, long, lush, hirsute tail trailing just behind. Even if their range is much wider than Texas, so much of our state’s wildlife feels uniquely Texan―armadillos and horned lizards, coyotes and Rio Grande turkeys. Foxes are wild Texas residents, too, but as the starring creatures in many childhood stories, they also evoke other times and faraway places. In ancient Greece, Aesop shared his fable of the Fox and the Grapes. A fox plays a pivotal role in the beloved French novella, The Little Prince, and, of course, there is Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Sox, Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Walt Disney’s The Fox and the Hound. And Br’er Fox will eternally be on the hunt for Br’er Rabbit. While foxes are the stuff of fairytales, learning the real-world facts about foxes here in Texas may be just as entertaining.
Texas is home to four types of foxes: one a native Texan with a penchant for climbing, one more likely to have been found across the pond running for its life from red jacketed horsemen and a pack of English hunting dogs, and two that are a trifle more specialized.
Gray Fox
The common gray fox is native to Texas. This medium-sized member of the dog family weighs between 8 and 12 pounds and sports a mostly grayish, salt-and-pepper coat but with reddish areas on its underside and legs (which sometimes causes confusion with red foxes, but more on them later). These foxes also sport a white throat and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
Gray foxes are particularly adept climbers who will take advantage of well-positioned tree for a quick escape or, perhaps, for a highrise home. Interesting note from the Mammals of Texas: “In eastern Texas, one was found denning about 10 m above the ground in a large hollow oak. In central Texas, a den was found in a hollow live oak with the entrance about 1 m above the ground.”
Common gray foxes are omnivorous, their diet varying based on availability and the seasons. They will eat small mammals, birds, and insects, as well as plant-based options like persimmons, acorns, and prickly pear tunas. Breeding season is typically from late winter to early spring and gray foxes are believed to be monogamous. Females exhibit some tough love techniques for their offspring (known as kits) and their other halves as described in “The Gray Fox – Graceful, Beautiful, Interesting and Not A Dog”: “The kits reach their adult weight at five to six months and discover Momma is suddenly snarly and mean, chasing them away to find their own territories. Although it seems cruel, this is, of course, nature’s way of preserving the next generation through geographical diversity.
“Incidentally, the female also snubs the male when the kits are self-sufficient, but the same pair quite often join forces again in December to start a new family.” Gray foxes are believed to live between six to ten years in the wild.
Red Fox
Along with the common gray fox, Texas is home to red foxes. These non-natives were brought to the colonies from England for sport hunting in the mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries and ultimately introduced in Texas in the late nineteenth century. As described by Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD): “The entire red fox population of Central Texas probably descended from forty foxes released between 1890 and 1895 near Waco. Offspring from these, plus an additional sixty imports, soon spread into the surrounding counties. Releases in other parts of the state further increased the red fox’s range. Now it can be found in the eastern, north-central, and Trans-Pecos areas of the state. Highest populations occur in north-central Texas.” Red foxes possess many similar characteristics with their common gray cousins but are easily distinguished thanks to their primarily red-orange fur and distinctive white tip on their tail. They also tend to be a little larger.
Swift Fox and Kit Fox
In “Wild Thing: The Other Foxes,” TPWD notes: “You may have seen two familiar species of foxes in Texas, but the state actually has four types. Gray and red foxes, the most common, are found across most of the state. The swift and kit fox are much more specialized — the swift fox occurs only in the Panhandle, and the kit fox is found in the deserts of West Texas.” While closely related and not opposed to hybridizing on occasion, the swift fox and the kit fox are two different species. They both share many similar characteristics with their more famous relatives but are notably smaller. The kit fox, for example, weighs in at just 3 to 6 pounds and the swift fox only slightly larger. Appearance-wise, the swift fox is a light orange-tan and the kit fox has a gray coat with rusty tones. Both can be objectively described as really cute.
Both foxes at one time had a much wider range. TPWD reports that the swift fox historically occurred in 77 counties in North Texas, but is now found in only Dallam and Sherman, two of the most northwestern Panhandle counties. Further, per TPWD, “this apparent decline is not limited to just Texas — it is estimated that swift foxes currently inhabit only 40 percent of their historic range. This decline is primarily attributed to shrub encroachment, changing land uses, historical hunting practices and predation from coyotes.”
The kit fox decline is based more on “anecdotal accounts from old-timers in West Texas” than research but there seems to be little argument that they are declining in many parts of their range.
Not in Texas, but for more fox entertainment, check out the interesting and true story of the Channel Island Fox, a fox off the coast of California that was on the brink of extinction in the 1990s. Part of the plan to bring this fox back involved New Zealanders, dogs, helicopters, and eliminating more than 5,000 feral hogs. Read and watch the Hopeful Story of a Doomed Fox here.
