Grey fox

In brief

Urocyon cinereoargenteus, Canidae, order Carnivora.

- Resident, nocturnal
- Native from southern Canada to Venezuela
- Omnivore, and the most vegetarian of the North American canids

Where it lives

Southern Canada to northern South America, and at home in exactly this: oak woodland and chaparral broken up by brush. It is the common fox of the California foothills, where the red fox is a lowland and largely introduced animal.

When you see it

Recorded on the trail cameras after dark. The frame here is March 17, 2025, at ten in the evening.

What it eats

Rodents, rabbits, insects, and a great deal of fruit. Manzanita berries, toyon, acorns and blackberries all turn up in grey fox droppings, which makes it a seed disperser as much as a predator.

Here

It has hooked claws that swivel, and it uses them to go up a trunk like a cat and rest in the branches. No other canid in the Americas can do it. The reason is the coyote: a fox that can leave the ground has an exit a coyote does not.

On a trail camera at night the identification rests on shape rather than color - short legs, heavy brush of a tail, large ears, and a low carriage. The confirmation to look for is the tail, which carries a black stripe along the top and a black tip. A red fox tail ends in white.