Favoring woodlands, the gray fox is found east of the Great Plains, from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast, along the Pacific Coast, from British Columbia to Mexico and in the American Southwest, from Colorado to Arizona to Texas; they also inhabit Mexico, Central America and the northern countries of South America. Sporting a pepper-gray coat, fringed by rust-colored fur on its neck and sides, and a bushy tail with a dark dorsal stripe and black tip, this fox has a stockier build and shorter legs than the more common and widespread red fox. Its most unique trait, however, is its ability to climb trees, one of only two canines in the world to do so.
Equipped with sharp claws, the gray fox will climb trees to escape predators (coyotes, feral dogs), to hunt for food (birds, eggs, berries) or simply to lounge on a broad limb; this woodland fox will also use tree cavities on occasion, denning up during severe weather or raising its kits there. Primarily nocturnal, the gray fox may be encountered at dawn or dusk but, unlike the red fox, rarely visits farms or residential areas. Its diet includes a wide range of small mammals, birds, eggs, insects and fruit.
Monogamous for life, gray fox partners are usually solitary during the late fall and winter months, reuniting to mate in February or March. Up to seven kits (3-4 is typical) are born in an underground den or hollow log (occasionally in a tree cavity, as above) and are able to hunt for themselves within a few months; the family members stay together into the early autumn but disperse as winter sets in.
