A red fox hunts by moving back and forth over an area, finding food by scent and sound. Red foxes are active at night, and around dusk and dawn. A red fox can hear small animals it cannot see, such as a mouse under snow or hidden in leaves, and a red fox that is hunting a mouse can stand still and listen for it. It creeps close to its food, the way a cat does, and then pounces. A red fox that has found a mouse launches itself into the air at a 45-degree angle and lands on it, pinning it to the ground. A red fox's top running speed is about 48 km/h (as reported), and it can jump over obstacles as high as 2 m.

Red foxes are omnivores, which means they eat both plants and animals. They eat rodents and rabbits, and they also eat fruit, and voles are a favorite food. A red fox eats about half a kilogram to one kilogram of food each day. Red foxes help to control the numbers of rodents and rabbits. A red fox may partly bury extra food, cover it with soil, grass, leaves or snow, and mark it with urine. Red foxes store extra food by hiding it, in a den or buried in the ground.

A red fox den is a hole in the earth 15 to 20 feet long, usually on the side of a knoll, which is a small hill. Red foxes often use an old woodchuck burrow as a den instead of digging their own. A newborn red fox weighs about 96 g (3.4 oz) and is covered with fine gray fur. Red fox pups are born brown or gray and usually turn red within about a month, and red fox kits open their eyes 9 to 14 days after birth. Red foxes often leave bones, feathers or other found objects around the den entrance for the kits to play with.

A red fox's eyes are yellow when it is mature, and it has excellent senses of vision, smell and touch. A red fox has five toes on each front foot and four on each back foot. Cross foxes are a color form of the red fox, with reddish brown fur, a black stripe down the back and another across the shoulders. Silver foxes are a color form of the red fox that range from strong silver to nearly black. Adult red foxes weigh from 3 to 14 kilograms (6.6 to 30.8 pounds).

Red foxes mark their home ranges with scent. How big a home range is depends on its habitat and on how much food is there. Red foxes live about 3 years on average in the wild and 10 to 12 years in captivity. Red foxes are now found in most habitat types, including places people have greatly changed. Red foxes have the widest distribution of any canid, which means they live over more of the world than any other member of the dog family.

Words to know

• pounces: jumps on
• omnivores: eats plants, animals
• knoll: a small hill
• scent: a smell