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(Urocyon cinereoargenteus) 
The grey fox ranges from southern Canada to
Venezuela in South America. Only a few populations exist south of the United
States and in Canada. They are found in a large variety of habitats,
occuring frequently near cities.
The grey fox's name is a misnomer, as this fox
is not entirely grey. The grey parts of this fox are a result of the
individual hairs being banded with black and white, giving the appearance of
grey fur. The top of the head, the back and sides of the animal, as well as
its thick, bushy tail, are a grizzled grey color. The underside of the tail,
the outside of the ears, most of the underside, and the sides of the neck
and chest are orangish-red in color. The most ventral part of the abdomen
and chest, the lowest parts of the legs and paws, the throat and lower
chest, cheeks and muzzle are white. A thin black stripe runs from the
outside corner of each eye to the sides of the head. A thick, dark stripe
runs from the inside corner of each eye down the sides of the muzzle to the
mouth. The tail has a black tip, and the hairs along the dorsal edge of the
back and top of the tail have heavy black tips, creating a dorsal stripe
that extends along the back all the way to the tip of the tail.
The grey fox has a thick, long body set on relatively short legs (for a canid). They live in the warmer parts of the world, so they do not have a double coat; instead they have a single layer of coarse fur. Male grey foxes are slightly larger than the females. Their legs are shorter than the red fox. Unlike most Vulpes foxes, the grey has oval-shaped pupils, opposed to the slit-like ones of the red fox. The skull can easily be distinguished from Vulpes foxes by the widely spaced temporal ridges, which form a U-shape on the sides of the skull.
Grey foxes eat small mammals and wild birds, as
well as insects, fruit and vegetation. Their diet varies within their range.
Some tend to be more insectivorous, some eat more vegetation, and some eat
more meat, depending on what is available as prey. They rarely prey on
domestic fowl. They are nocturnal, and so tend to hunt at night.
The pair mates for life, and form a range
together. Grey foxes, though not as territorial as red foxes, still maintain
a territory and mark it off regularly with urine and fecal deposits. Their
mating season is affected by the latitude in which they live; the higher
north they are, the later the breeding season. It can be anywhere from
January to May. After the gestation period of 2 months, the female gives
birth to 4-10 all black young, called kits, in an underground den which was
dug by another creature. Their dens can also be located in trees. Their dens
tend to be more in the ground the further north they live. The kits are
weaned in 6 weeks, and hunt on their own at 4 months. They get their set of
adult teeth at this age as well. The young foxes usually disperse at one
year.
They are nocturnal creatures, and spend much of
the daylight hours in underground burrows that are abandoned dens of other
species. They come out at night to hunt small mammals and birds. If
threatened, the grey fox will seek shelter in their burrows, or even by
climbing up trees, and waiting for the danger to pass. The grey fox is
unique in its cat-like ability to scale trees, which is unusual for a canid.
They have strong, hooked claws that enable them to climb trees.
The grey is prey to cougars, eagles, wolves,
coyotes, and humans killing them for their fur. Half a million grey foxes
are trapped annually to meet the still high and ever growing demand for fur.
In Wisconsin alone, half the grey fox population is killed off annually.
However, even with such a brutal impact on the species, the grey fox's
numbers do not seem to decline.
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