Red Fox

Latin name: Vulpes vulpes

Size: body length 60-90cm, height 35-50cm, tail length 30-55cm, weight 5-15kg

Lifespan: 5-6 years, but they have been known to live over 10 years, especially in captivity.

Diet: Despite often being depicted as hunters in popular culture, foxes are in fact omnivores meaning that they eat both plants and other animals.

The animal part of their diet is made up of small rodents like, rats, mice, voles and squirrels, but they have also been known to eat reptiles, amphibians and even fish.

When it comes to plants foxes eat mostly fruit, including blackberries, apples and acorns, as well as grasses.

Habitat: Areas with dense vegetation that provide the concealment they require when hunting.

Red foxes build their dens into well drained slopes or beneath tree roots.

Did you know?

In the UK red foxes have little in the way of natural predators, the only real ones being large birds of prey that mostly only take cubs.

As opposed to being threated by the expansion of human activity, red foxes have adapted to it, and are now often found in urban areas.

Urban red foxes have a diet very similar to rural foxes, however they'll also scavenge from bins. Usually timid they can become used to human interaction and far bolder around people.

In winter red foxes grow a majestic this coat to keep them warm. During the colder months their prey becomes scarcer, and December through to February are when they breed, both of which mean that they're relatively active over winter compared to many species.