What does the red fox eat?
Red foxes hunt and forage for: • Fruits, seeds and berries. • Small mammals, including voles, mice, rabbits and muskrats. • Small marsh birds and their eggs. • Invertebrates like worms and insects. Red foxes are sensitive to low-frequency sounds, allowing them to hear smaller mammals digging, chewing and rustling underground. Once a red fox detects its prey, it rapidly digs into the soil to capture it. Red foxes will also stalk small mammals by standing very still, then leaping high and bringing their forepaws down hard to pin the animal to the ground. When does the red fox breed? Red foxes usually begin breeding in late winter or early spring, sometimes as early as January. • Adults remain solitary until ready to breed, when they begin a pattern of nocturnal barking. • Females have a single estrous period every year that lasts only two to four days. They are thought to mate for life. • After mating, the female establishes a den, which she may dig or take over from another mammal. She
