The Fabulous Grey Fox

What a beauty

October and November are that magical time of the year when the Jujube fruit has ripened, and the 24-hr. “snacketeria” opens for wildlife.  During the daytime hours, the Northern Flickers and other woodpeckers feast, jumping from branch to branch and calling to each other from the treetop.  Customers during the late night hours include the “cleanup crew” of Grey Foxes, standing on their hind legs to carefully pluck fruit from between the sharp thorns on the lower branches, then putting their noses to the ground to get every last morsel of fruit that has fallen.

Fresh Jujube fruit

The Grey Fox is such a beautiful animal, with an ultra-thick coat, rusty red chest and legs, white throat, and long fluffy tail.  It’s easy to distinguish them from a coyote even with a quick glance of their silhouette, as they are much smaller in size than the coyote -- usually only around 3ft long from trip of nose to tip of tail, and weigh only 7 to 11 pounds.  Their muzzle is much more narrow and pointed too.  Similar to coyotes, Grey Foxes often leave their scat in prominent places as a territorial marker, such as on top of a boulder, on a trail, etc., but theirs is smaller than coyote scat and typically very twisted at one end.

A kit out on the prowl

Grey foxes are also quieter than their canine cousin (and fellow omnivore) the coyote while they go about their nocturnal hunting, but their screams and shrieks during territorial squabbles or mating season can be very alarming because they sound like a human in great distress.  They breed in late winter, often making their dens in boulder piles, caves, hollow trees and other natural cavities, mine shafts, or by enlarging the underground burrow of another animal.  The pups (also known as kits) are born in March or April and both parents feed them, but the father fox guards the den from a vantage point where he can watch for predators or other danger, and does not occupy the den.  The pups venture out of the den after around 5 weeks, are usually weaned by around 10 weeks, and able to hunt for themselves at around 4 months of age.  Typically, a Grey Fox family remains together until late fall, then separates, and the individual foxes remain solitary through the winter.

A rare daytime visit to our garden

Grey Foxes love all kinds of fruit, such as Jujubes and Prickly Pear, berries, and more, and are good hunters of mice, ground squirrels, rabbits, lizards, snakes, and grasshoppers.  They don't dig for prey as much as coyotes do, but they can climb trees much more easily!  Their sharp, stout, slightly curved claws help them ascend headfirst, and they can descend the same way.  While they’re up there, they may hunt for insects, acorns or mesquite beans, birds, and eggs, and/or stay to sleep out of the reach of predators.  

Grey Foxes are also known to scavenge road kills in the early morning hours, so take care to watch out for them as you wind through the hills and valleys on Arivaca Road and Ruby Road- thanks!

Sources I researched for this article:

https://www.desertmuseum.org

https://www.desertusa.com

https://www.nationalgeographic.com


Photo credits:
Grey Fox adult by James Marvin Phelps, Linnea.Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Jujube fruit by Frank Muller, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Grey Fox kit by Bill Leikam, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Daytime Grey Fox visit by Emily Bishton