Nature Bulletin No. 108   March 22, 1947
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
William N. Erickson, President
Roberts Mann, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE RED FOX

The red fox has been described as the best-loved and most hated, 
wisest, smelliest, daintiest, thinnest, sleekest, most flea-bitten and 
controversial animal in America. In some sections of the country where 
he is hunted by packs of hounds while their owners sit around a camp 
fire all night long, listening to the music of the chase, and in others 
where they follow the hounds on horseback at breakneck speed, the 
quickest way to earn the hatred of your neighbors is to kill a fox. In 
others there are organized fox drives and they are shot as killers of 
game birds and the farmer's poultry. Also, he is trapped for his valuable 
fur. But he survives and there are many foxes in Cook County. Tracks 
in the snow show that one comes to within 50 feet of our back door. 
Few people ever see one.

The red fox is a small member of the dog family, standing from 14 to 
16 inches high at the shoulder and weighing from 7 to 12 lbs., with a 
long nose, pointed ears and a long bushy tail. The legs and ears are 
black; the cheeks, underparts and tip of the tail are white; the rest of his 
fur is brightly colored with autumn-toned shades of pinkish red, burnt 
orange and tawny yellow. Being very lean and narrow-chested, his 
footprints are almost in a straight line. They yap frequently in short 
squalls ending in a long gargling sound. Rarely, one may yowl much 
like a bobcat.

The dog fox and the vixen mate for life. The young, usually four or five 
in number, are born about the last of March in a den which is frequently 
the enlarged burrow of a woodchuck. After the pups are weaned, foxes 
spend the rest of the year, including winter, in the open. They prefer 
hilly partly-wooded country, usually avoiding tall grass, heavy weed 
growth, tangled brush and briars, and swampy ground. They love to sit 
on an open knoll, listening and sniffing the wind. Probably 90% of their 
food is rabbits and mice Fruit and acorns, insects, and other small 
mammals such as shrews and squirrels, in that order are the other food 
items most commonly eaten. Investigations show that relatively few 
chickens or game birds are taken. However, the fox is omnivorous and 
what he eats depends mostly on what is available.

So shut your chicken-house door; Richard.