WILDLIFE IN RYERSONS WOODS
Red Fox
Vulpes fulva

The red fox is one of many small mammals that live in Ryerson Woods. The male averages 15 lbs; the female, only 12 lbs. Their fur is golden brown or reddish on the back and sides, whitish underneath; their legs and ears are black, and a long bushy tail ends with a bight white tip.

Foxes eat a wide variety of food including small mammals such as mice or rabbits, birds, bird eggs, insects, crayfish, fruit, acorns and grass. But in Ryerson Woods they have to beware of the great horned owl, which will eat the foxes!

With a keen sense of sight, smell and hearing, the fox can stay active through the winter, finding food under leaves or in the snow. Communicating with each other by scent and by hearing, all year long you may smell a rank odor in their territory, and hear them bark, yap, howl, whine and screech.

Foxes pair up in December, finding vacant woodchuck or other dens to enlarge and clean for their home.. Occasionally, they will dig their own. They are usually careful to choose a den with good drainage near fields and water. Dens are burrows 15-20 feet long with a grass-lined nest.

Each litter of 4-10 kits per year, is cared for by both parents. They are fully grown by 6 months. Adults teach them to hunt and though they remain in their parents home range and will help the parents raise the next litter, they strike out on their own before the following winter.