Common Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

Habitat Requirements may be distributed across the NEIGHBORHOOD

1st alternative:
      Savanna
   containing:
      (Mast and Living Cavity Trees and Dead Down Woody Debris)

2nd alternative:
      (Oak (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Assorted Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Swamp Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Bottomland Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Lowland Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
   containing:
      (Mast and Living Cavity Trees and Dead Down Woody Debris)
   neighboring:
      (Grass or Any Cropland)
      and Upland Brush

Habitat List:

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Literature:

The tree-climbing gray fox is a typical resident of deciduous forest throughout North America. The species is generally uncommon in our area. It lives where woodlands and farm fields are well mixed, in wooded swamps, and in bottomland forests. Unlike its red cousin, the gray fox shuns cultivated fields and open meadows, spending its time in woods and thickets instead.

For shelter, it uses a rocky crevice, brushpile, or underground den. A gray fox rarely digs a den from scratch, preferring instead to modify an abandoned woodchuck or badger burrow.

The gray fox feeds primarily on small mammals - cottontails, voles, mice, and squirrel. Birds, grasshoppers, and crayfish are taken in smaller amounts. Plant material often is the largest component of the diet in late summer and autumn when this carnivore consumes large amounts of corn, apples, grapes, and nuts.

Habitat: Dense northern hardwood or mixed forests. May inhabit thickets and swamps. Prefers a mixture of fields and woods.

Special Habitat Requirements: Den sites such as hollow logs, tree cavities, rock crevices, or cavities beneath deserted buildings, rarely in ground burrows.

Habitat Preferences: The Michigan gray fox, in marked contrast to the red fox, is primarily a woodland creature, although their ecological ranges overlap considerably. However, the gray fox's preferred Michigan habitat is poorly known because so few field observations have been reported. In Osceola County, Wenzel found the gray fox using "…large boreal islands (tamarack) and cedar swamps), which furnish it the best protection." In Wisconsin, Jackson stressed the gray fox's use of hardwoods or mixed hardwoods and conifer forest, brushlands, bottomland woods, and rough, hilly terrain. In Indiana, Mumford noted that the gray fox uses brushy and wooded habitats in preference to the more open areas which attract red foxes.

Behavior: Gray foxes select a variety of ground dens including abandoned woodchuck and badger burrows. Although underground burrows may be better insulated, the animals also use hollow trees, rocky ledges, stumps, and rock piles.

Food Habits: Although there is evidence that the gray fox eats a larger amount of vegetable matter (fruits) and invertebrates (arthropods) than does the red fox, availability and ease of obtaining food seem to be of major importance and diet selections change from season to season. Most studies have shown that the eastern cottontail may be the most important year-around food for the gray fox.

Key Components of Habitat: High degree of habitat or cover type edge as a result of interspersion or mosaic of woodland, shrubland, cropland, and grassland habitat.

Management Actions to Enhance or Maintain Habitat Quality: Maintain woodlots in agricultural areas with minimal grazing or disturbance to ensure diversity of understory vegetation and foods; maintain shelterbelts and fencerows for cover and travel corridors, encourage establishment of fruit-producing shrubs and trees.

Habitat: Gray foxes are important members of deciduous woodland communities. In eastern North America their range closely approximates the extent of the deciduous forest, whereas western foxes are usually found in close association with brushlands and streamside forests. In Wisconsin, gray foxes were most abundant near brush-covered bluffs where woodlands and farmlands were well interspersed. Likewise, woodland-farmland edge provided the best gray fox habitat in southern Georgia, Virginia, and the post oak woodlands of Texas.

Early successional old fields in southern Illinois were used more than expected, whereas agricultural and brushy habitats were used less than expected and woodlands were used in proportion to their availability. Gray foxes preferred old fields during summer and fall but shifted a larger proportion of their activities to woodlands during winter and spring.