Red fox

Rust-orange coat, black stockings, and a white-tipped tail, the red fox is one of Manitoba’s most watchful and most photogenic residents. The red fox is slim and agile, with a rusty coat, black legs, and a white-tipped tail. It lives in fields, forest edges, and rural farmyards across the province, and is often seen hunting alone at dawn or dusk.

Red foxes are small, quick hunters of fields, forest edges, and the margins of towns, feeding on mice, voles, birds, and berries. Their large ears let them pinpoint small animals moving beneath grass and snow, and the white tip on the tail is a good clue to the species at a distance. They are most active around dawn and dusk. Foxes pounce on mice and voles hidden under grass or snow, using their sharp hearing to pinpoint prey before leaping high and diving in head first.

This is a favourite frame of a red fox, standing alert in a grassy clearing.

Red fox standing in a grassy clearing, with a rusty-orange coat, black legs, and a white-tipped tail

Photos

  • Red fox standing in a grassy clearing, with a rusty-orange coat, black legs, and a white-tipped tail
  • Red fox looking out from a thicket of green leaves with its mouth open

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