Red fox Facts for Kids
Vulpes vulpes · VUL-peez VUL-peez
A red fox can hear a mouse squeaking under deep snow.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ 9 to 11 lb4.1 to 5 kg1
- 📏 3.6 ft1.1 m2 long
- 🎂 3 to 4 years3 to 4 years3
- 🍽️ plants and animals
- Doing fine (Least Concern)
Red foxes have orange-red fur and a bushy tail. A baby fox is called a kit. Foxes live in forests and even in towns.
A red fox has big pointy ears and very good hearing. When it hears a mouse in the grass or under the snow, it leaps high and dives down on it. Most red foxes have a white tip on the tail and black socks on their legs.
Red foxes are the largest of the true foxes, and they live across more of the world than any other wild member of the dog family. They are very adaptable: they eat fruit, berries, insects, mice and rabbits, and some live happily in cities, where they find food in parks and gardens. A fox pair raises their kits in a den, and both parents bring food. Foxes use their long, bushy tails for balance when they leap and turn, and they wrap them around themselves in cold weather.
How big is a red fox?
Red fox in numbers
| Length | 3.6 ft1.1 m2average |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | 15 to 20 in38 to 51 cm4 |
| Weight | 9 to 11 lb4.1 to 5 kg1adult average |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 3 to 4 years3 to 4 years3in the wild |
| What it eats | mice, rabbits, birds, insects, fruit and berries |
| Where it lives | most of the Northern Hemisphere, from forests and farms to city parks |
| What kind | Mammals |
| Is it in danger? | Doing fine (Least Concern)5 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- A red fox has pupils shaped like slits, like a cat's.
- Red fox kits are born with brownish-gray fur, and the red coat comes later.
- Red foxes live in cities, forests, farms and even deserts.
Compare the red fox
Friends and neighbours
Arctic fox
Gray wolf
RaccoonThree questions
Books about the red fox, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the red fox for free.
Where these numbers come from
- National Park Service (The Clever Red Fox), checked 30 October 2026.
- National Park Service, Yellowstone, checked 30 October 2026.
- USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System, checked 30 October 2026.
- National Park Service, Pipestone, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Red fox (Q8332), checked 30 October 2026.