With the Wild Things: Foxes

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|a With the Wild Things: Foxes |h [electronic resource].

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|a Ft. Myers, Florida : |b Whitaker Center in the College of Arts and Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University.

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|a 5 podcasts, approximately 1 minute each in length

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|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the users responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

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|a Source: Foxes 1 Length of Segment: 00:01:15 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Florida has two kinds of foxes, but they're easy to recognize. The tip of the tail of our red fox is always white; the tip of the tail of our gray fox is always dark gray or black. Other than the color of the tip of the tail, both foxes show a great deal of variation, although the red fox is generally red above and white below and the gray fox is mostly gray above with a black stripe down its back and light gray below. The gray fox, however, can show a considerable amount of red around its neck and on its sides. And some red foxes can be mostly black, though they still have that white-tipped tail. Both of our foxes produce about five pups each spring and raise them in a den that can be an elaborate burrow system. When young foxes are about two-thirds grown, they begin to wander from the den and are then known as kits. Ties between parents and young are broken at summer's end. Our two foxes are closely related to one another and are distant relatives of our domestic dogs. Foxes differ from dogs in several ways. One is that the pupils of a fox's eyes are elliptical like a cat's eyes, unlike the rounded pupils of dogs.

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|a Source: Foxes 2 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Most red foxes are readily identified by their rusty-red coat, white undersides, and long bushy tail with a white tip. We readily recognize red foxes because of their conspicuous fur coat and the facts that they have been the subject of considerable folklore and many children’s stories, a part of our European heritage stemming from the tradition of fox hunting. The red foxes of Europe and North America have long been considered different species, but recent genetic studies suggests that they're one in the same. Today, red foxes are found across the United States and into southern Canada and are absent only from parts of the southwest, Rocky Mountain areas, and parts of coastal North Carolina and Virginia, but in the past they may have been absent from much of the south. The distribution of red foxes has changed substantially since colonial times, in part a result of introductions for fox hunting and more recently, as a result of clearing and fragmentation of our forests. As recently as the 1950s, red foxes were said to be absent from Florida. Today, they can be found throughout the state.

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|a Source: Foxes 3 Length of Segment: 00:01:15 Hi, I’m Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The red fox is a solitary predator that may hunt over about 250-600 acres, depending on the quality of its habitat. The warmer Florida environment probably results in less seasonal variation in movements than in snow-covered areas of the north. Red foxes feed primarily on mice, but take other small rodents, rabbits, birds, snakes, lizards, insects, and a diversity of fruits. It's an opportunist, and occasionally gets in trouble by taking chickens and other small domestic animals. Red foxes use hearing to locate mice and have hearing very sensitive to low sounds, such as the gnawing of a rodent. They also have a strong preference for animals that have been dead for a few days and fruits that have fallen and begun to decay. The latter preferences may get them in trouble; sometimes they're accused of killing prey which they found dead. While the red fox's prime habitat is a mosaic of farmland and woodlots, they're also found in large metropolitan areas. They often hunt along highways, taking advantage of the smorgasbord of carrion provided, but also sometimes becoming a victim of the traffic that provides their meals.

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|a Source: Foxes 4 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The gray fox is a salt and pepper gray animal with red on the back of its ears, around its neck, its legs and at the edges of its belly. The extent of red varies, but the gray fox always has a dark tip to its tail. The gray fox is leaner and lankier than the red fox. It's also more cat-like in its behavior. Gray foxes can be found in a diversity of habitats, but are more often found in forested areas. They're the foxes usually found in Florida swamp lands. The gray fox in an adept climber, climbing for a meal or to escape its adversaries. During the day it may sleep draped across a large tree limb. Occasionally, gray foxes will raise their pups well above ground in a large tree cavity, but other times they raise their young in burrows or in hollow logs on the ground. The gray fox is an opportunist when it comes to dinner, but rabbits and mice dominate their menu. In fall, a gray fox will eat an abundance of grasshoppers, crickets, fruit, and nuts. Although mostly an animal of the south, the gray fox has recently expanded its range northward into New England and Michigan, perhaps a result of habitat changes, increased food supplies, and a changing climate.

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|a Source: Foxes 5 Length of Segment: 00:01:14 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Our red and gray foxes have both likely benefited from the arrival of humans in Florida. Clearing the forest lands, creating more of a habitat mosaic in the state has created good habitats for both. Our highways have also been a boon to them, providing an abundance of road kills as food and culverts that are sometimes used as dens. Both foxes are hunted for sport or for their fur. The fur of a red fox has always been more valuable than that of a gray fox and in the 1970s, some red fox pelts brought as much as $50. The fur of a gray fox is more coarse, and of less value. The range expansion of red foxes into Florida and throughout the state since the 1950s brought problems for some other Florida wildlife. Red foxes have become important predators on beach-nesting birds and the eggs and young of sea turtles and also threaten Florida animals that have very restricted distribution, such as the Perdido Key beach mouse. Both the gray fox and the red fox can carry rabies. Red fox seem to be the greater problem because they occur more often in urban habitats; one was even seen in the Orange Bowl football stadium.

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|a Added automatically.

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|a Foxes.

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|t Foxes 1

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|t Foxes 2

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|t Foxes 3

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|a With the Wild Things.

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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades