50 Fun Facts About Red Fox

Red foxes pouncing on mice hidden under deep snow appear to line up their leap using what?

Earth's magnetic field seems to help the fox judge its jump: it pinpoints the prey by sound, then sails through the air to land on a target up to 5 metres away.

In Finnish folklore, a fox running through snowy hills conjures which display in the sky?

Northern lights are still called revontulet in Finnish, a word that literally translates as fox-fires.

The scent gland near the base of a red fox's tail is reported to smell like which flower?

Violets are the scent reported for this gland, whose position is usually marked by a small black spot in the fur.

The web browser Firefox, whose logo shows a fox, is actually named after which animal?

Red panda is the animal behind the name: firefox is a common name for it, even though the animal drawn in the browser's logo is a stylised fox.

Which country released red foxes for sport in the 1800s and now counts them a major pest?

Australia now has millions of red foxes, and their spread has gone hand in hand with the decline of native animals such as bilbies, numbats and quokkas.

Despite the red fox's henhouse reputation, what can make up its entire diet in autumn?

Fruit can be all a red fox eats in autumn in some areas, with cherries, plums, apples and even acorns on the menu.

Which masked hero of old California, created in 1919, is named after the Spanish for fox?

Zorro is simply Spanish for fox, a nickname the townspeople in the stories give the masked rider for his cunning and charm.

What colour are the eyes of newborn red fox kits, before they change to amber at about a month old?

Blue is the colour kits are born with, though at first nobody can see it: they arrive blind, and their eyes stay shut for about two weeks.

Red foxes seem to dislike the taste of which diggers, yet catch them alive for their young?

Moles are caught alive and handed over to the kits as playthings, even though the adults apparently find them unpleasant to eat.

Which country's scientists bred foxes so tame that they wag their tails at people?

Russia is home to the experiment, begun by geneticist Dmitry Belyayev, in which only the foxes that were calmest around humans were allowed to breed.

Which word for a female fox keeps an old southern English v where the north said f?

Vixen survives from a time when southern English speakers said vox for fox, making it one of very few modern words to keep that old v.

In Aesop's fable, a fox decides that which out-of-reach food was probably sour anyway?

Grapes hanging on a vine defeat the fox, and the fable gave English an idiom for scorning something you cannot have.

Which author wrote Fantastic Mr Fox, in which a fox outwits farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean?

Roald Dahl published the novel in 1970, and its hero keeps his family fed by tunnelling into the farmers' stores while they wait at his hole.

Which legendary outlaw did Disney portray as a red fox in a 1973 animated film?

Robin Hood and Maid Marian are both red foxes in the film, which fills medieval England with talking animals instead of humans.

The red fox belongs to which animal family, alongside wolves and jackals?

Canidae is the dog family, in which foxes stand apart from wolves and jackals by their smaller size, longer and bushier tails and flatter skulls.

What colour is the tip of a typical red fox's tail, in contrast to its black paws?

White tips the tail of a typical red fox, and the tail itself is so long that it reaches the ground when the animal is standing.

Red foxes are the most important wild carrier in Europe of which deadly viral disease?

Rabies has been cut back across rural Europe by oral vaccines hidden in baits, which protect the wild animals that eat them.

Red foxes set the southern limit of the range of which smaller relative?

Arctic fox territory ends where the bigger red fox takes over, and on islands where fur companies released both, the red fox invariably displaced its cousin.

Red foxes, which also have a third eyelid, have pupils of which shape?

Vertical ovals are the shape of a red fox's pupils, set in eyes that respond mainly to movement rather than to fine detail.

In Zootopia, red fox con artist Nick Wilde teams up with a rookie cop of which species?

Rabbit recruit Judy Hopps is hustled by Nick during her shift, before the pair work together to uncover a conspiracy behind the disappearance of predators.

The red fox is the largest true fox, but which North African species is the smallest?

Fennec fox adults weigh only 0.7 to 1.6 kg, while a red fox averages 4.1 to 8.7 kg, several times heavier.

In Aesop's fable, a fox flatters a crow into cawing so that the bird drops which food?

Cheese falls from the crow's beak the moment the bird caws, after the fox wonders aloud whether its voice is as sweet as its looks.

One of North America's most endangered mammals is a red fox named after which mountain range?

Sierra Nevada red foxes live high in the mountains and are somewhat smaller and lighter than the red foxes of the lowlands.

Which country is home to Ylvis, the comedy duo behind the 2013 viral hit The Fox?

Norway got the joke first: the brothers made the song as a deliberate anti-hit to promote their television talk show, and it became YouTube's top trending video of 2013.

Which biblical strongman set Philistine crops alight by tying torches to the tails of 300 foxes?

Samson tied the foxes together in pairs by their tails, fixed a burning torch to each pair and turned them loose among the standing grain and olive groves.

Which large bird of prey regularly takes young red foxes and will prey on adults if needed?

Golden eagle attacks mostly target the young, and red foxes sometimes turn the tables on smaller raptors by stealing kills from buzzards and goshawks.

Which burrowing mammal may share a den with red foxes, tidying up in return for food scraps?

Badger and fox may put up with each other because both gain, though the bigger animal has also been known to drive foxes out and destroy their litters.

Foxes bred only for tameness in a famous experiment grew curly tails and which dog-like trait?

Floppy ears first appeared in a cub of the tenth generation, even though the breeders had chosen the parents only for how they behaved around people.

What is the scientific name of the red fox, the largest of the true foxes?

Vulpes vulpes doubles the Latin word for fox, which also gives English the adjectives vulpine and vulpecular.

Which old word for a male fox did Disney give the young red fox in The Fox and the Hound?

Tod is the name a kindly farmer gives the orphaned cub she adopts, and it doubles as a traditional term for a male fox.

A black-furred colour form of the red fox, the one furriers value most, goes by which name?

Silver fox is the name for the melanistic form of the red fox, and its pelt outranked both the cross fox and the ordinary red in the fur trade.

Which Pacific country bans the import of red foxes as a prohibited new organism?

New Zealand has no foxes at all, and a 1996 law on hazardous substances and new organisms keeps it that way by forbidding their import.

Which mite-borne skin disease can strip a red fox of most of its fur and half its body weight?

Mange starts at the base of the tail and the hind feet before spreading, and foxes may abandon their dens for good during an outbreak.

How does the IUCN Red List rate the red fox, hunted for centuries as a pest and for its fur?

Least concern suits a species this successful: because of its impact on native wildlife, the red fox also appears on a list of the world's 100 worst invasive species.

What colour is the fluffy fur of newborn red fox kits, which arrive blind, deaf and toothless?

Dark brown fur covers the newborns, and the famous colouring comes later: the coat only starts to change at about three weeks old.

Which trickster of medieval fables was so popular that his name became the French for fox?

Reynard pushed out the old French word goupil, and the wolf he torments throughout the tales is his own uncle.

The Hunting Act 2004 banned hunting foxes with dogs in England and which other country?

Wales was covered by the same act, while Scotland had already brought in a ban of its own two years earlier.

Kitsune udon gets its fox name from which topping, said in Japanese folklore to be a fox's favourite food?

Fried tofu, called aburaage, is the offering the fox spirits of folklore are believed to prefer, so noodles topped with it took their name.

The Ezo red fox, also found on nearby Sakhalin, lives on which Japanese island?

Hokkaido is the stronghold of the Ezo red fox, which ranges there from grassland all the way up to the alpine belt.

Which tree-climbing North American fox dominates the red fox wherever their ranges meet?

Gray fox meetings with red foxes used to be rare, but deforestation has let the red fox move into the heavily wooded country its rival favours.

The red fox's three-to-five-syllable winter bark can be confused with the call of which bird?

Tawny owl territorial calls ring out in the same months, December to February, when two foxes approaching each other bark most often.

Besides a leash, which collective noun can describe a group of foxes?

Skulk is one of several collective nouns for foxes, though red foxes usually live in pairs or small family groups rather than big gatherings.

In Greek myth, which god turned the uncatchable Teumessian fox and its pursuer to stone?

Zeus faced a paradox: the enormous fox was destined never to be caught, while the magical dog set on its trail was destined to catch everything it chased.

In Japanese folklore, fox spirits called kitsune serve as messengers of which rice deity?

Inari shrines are watched over by fox statues, and the famous Fushimi shrine in Kyoto has large numbers of them.

What do biologists call a red fox's habit of taking far more hens or gulls than it can eat?

Surplus killing was named by Dutch biologist Hans Kruuk, and four red foxes were once recorded killing around 200 gulls each in a single breeding season.

Red foxes have been seen tormenting which larger scavenger even when no food is at stake?

Striped hyena jaws can tear flesh too tough for a fox, and the smaller animal dodges attacks by outrunning its victim, although some misjudge it and are killed.

Which wild cat chases red foxes into deep snow, where its long legs give it the edge?

Eurasian lynx gain the upper hand once the snow lies more than a metre deep, thanks to their larger paws as well as their longer legs.

What is the name for the throaty, ratchet-like rattle red foxes make during fights?

Gekkering is heard mostly in the courting season, from rival males or from females turning down an unwanted suitor.

Which ruler of Saxony held a famous fox tossing contest in Dresden, flinging animals from slings?

Augustus the Strong joined in himself, reportedly holding his end of the sling with a single finger while two of his strongest courtiers held the other.

Fox fur farming was refined in the 1890s in which part of Canada, whose coat of arms shows a fox?

Prince Edward Island breeders Charles Dalton and Robert Oulton began crossbreeding experiments in 1894, raising and caring for their foxes in captivity.