Illinois is home to two fox species, the red fox and the gray fox. Based on their names, you would think it would be pretty easy to tell these two foxes apart.
That's true a lot of the time, but there can be confusion sometimes because red foxes are not always their trademark rusty red color. While most red foxes are, in fact, red, several color variations are possible. They can sometimes be a silvery gray color, black or a cross between red and silver.
But no matter what color a red fox is, there is one easy to way to know if a fox is a red fox. Simply look at its tail. A red fox will have white fur at the end of its tail, no matter what color the rest of their fur is. Gray foxes will never have a white tip on their tails. Instead, the tips of their tails are always black.
What they look like
Gray foxes typically have gray backs, sides and heads, but they also have reddish fur on their legs, belly and chest. Red foxes have white fur on their chest and belly, and their lower legs are typically blackish.
Words to know
Deciduous: Trees or shrubs that shed their leaves annually.
Differentiated: To tell apart or recognize the difference.
Genus: In biology, a category that ranks above species and below family.
Invertebrates: An animal that doesn’t have a backbone, such a spiders, worms or snails.
Trademark: A characteristic usually associated with something and that helps to identify it.
While the color of the tip of their tail is the easiest way to tell the difference between these two fox species, there are other differences as well. For starters, gray foxes are slightly smaller than red foxes. Red foxes generally weigh between 10 pounds and 30 pounds, and gray foxes weigh between 5 pounds and 20 pounds.
Red foxes also have longer legs, a leaner body and bigger feet than gray foxes. Finally, the shape of their eyes can be a distinguishing factor. Red foxes' eyes are more slit shaped, while gray foxes' are more rounded.
Where they live
Both the red fox and the gray fox live across Illinois, but red foxes are more common in northern Illinois while gray foxes are most common in the southern part of the state and along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Red foxes can thrive in a wide variety of habitats, including urban and suburban areas, forested areas, grasslands and agricultural lands. Gray foxes generally prefer to live in and near deciduous forests.
The preferred forest habitat for gray foxes allows them to have one skill that red foxes don't have. Gray foxes are good at climbing trees. They can climb trees both to hunt and escape danger, and they even sometimes rest or sleep in trees.
What they eat
Both red foxes and gray foxes are omnivores, and both eat a lot of rodents. They also eat birds, insects and invertebrates as well as fruit. In Illinois, both foxes have few predators. Their main predator is the coyote, although bobcats and even eagles and great horned owls have been known to hunt foxes.
Although red foxes and gray foxes share many traits and behaviors, they are not that closely related. They are only distant cousins. While both belong to the Canidae family, the red fox and gray fox do not belong to the same genus. This can be differentiated in their scientific names. The scientific name of the red fox is Vulpes vulpes, and it belongs to the Vulpes genus. The scientific name of the gray fox is Urocyon cinereoargenteus, placing it in the Urocyon genus.
While red foxes and gray foxes are the most well-known and wide-ranging fox species in North America, there are a few other foxes, including the Arctic fox, kit fox, swift fox and island gray fox. Arctic foxes live in the tundra in the far northern reaches of North America. Kit foxes are the smallest North American fox species, and they can be found in the southwestern United States as well as northern and central Mexico. Swift foxes live in the grasslands of the northern Great Plains, and island gray foxes live only on some of the Channel Islands off the coast of California.
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