Are Foxes Dogs or Cats? Where Foxes Fit in the Family Tree

Foxes belong to the dog family

All foxes are canids, members of the family Canidae. The family has about 35–37 living species, including the gray wolf, the coyote, jackals, the African wild dog, South American canids and the domestic dog. Foxes make up a large share of these species.

Within the order Carnivora, there are two main branches. The dog-like carnivores (Caniformia) include dogs, bears, weasels, raccoons and seals. The cat-like carnivores (Feliformia) include cats, hyenas, mongooses and civets. Foxes sit firmly on the dog-like branch, and these two branches split from a common ancestor more than 40 million years ago.

So a fox is much more closely related to a wolf, and even to a bear or a weasel, than it is to any cat. Hyenas are a good example of the opposite confusion: they look dog-like but are on the cat branch, as explained in are hyenas dogs or cats?.

True foxes and other “foxes”

Not every animal called a fox is a “true fox”. Biologists use that name for the genus Vulpes, which has 12 living species, including the red fox, the arctic fox, the fennec fox, the kit fox and the swift fox. True foxes share features such as a flattened skull, a pointed muzzle and a long, bushy tail.

Other canids called foxes belong to separate lineages. The gray fox and the island fox of North America (genus Urocyon) branched off early in canid history. The bat-eared fox of Africa (Otocyon) has its own lineage, and the “foxes” of South America, such as the culpeo, are actually more closely related to wolves and dogs than to true foxes. The name “fox” describes a body shape and lifestyle more than a single family branch.

Why foxes seem cat-like

Foxes share a lifestyle with many small cats: they hunt small animals alone, often at dusk and at night. Similar needs have produced similar features, a process biologists call convergent evolution.

Slit pupils. Red foxes and other true foxes have vertical, slit-shaped pupils, like domestic cats. Research on many land animals suggests that vertical slits are common in small predators that ambush prey from close range and are active in both day and night light, because they help judge distance and control how much light enters the eye. Wolves and dogs have round pupils.

Stalking and pouncing. A red fox hunting a vole in a meadow listens carefully, then leaps high and dives onto the prey with its front feet, a move called mousing. It looks very much like a cat pouncing on a mouse. Wolves, by contrast, mostly chase large prey as a pack.

Climbing. The gray fox is the best climber in the dog family. It can rotate its forearms more than other canids and grip a trunk to shin up trees, sometimes resting or denning well above the ground. Its strongly curved claws help it hold on. Red foxes can scramble onto low branches, walls, sheds and roofs, but they are not true climbers.

Whiskers and agility. Foxes have long, sensitive whiskers on the muzzle and fine, light bones, and they move with a light, careful step. Some people also notice that foxes groom themselves and play with prey in ways that remind them of cats.

How foxes are still dog-like

Despite those traits, foxes are clearly canids in their anatomy and behavior. They have the long muzzle, non-retractile claws and teeth typical of the dog family, and they walk on their toes like dogs. Like dogs, they bark, whine and growl, and they mark territories with urine and scent glands.

Their family life is dog-like too. Most foxes form a breeding pair, and the male helps by bringing food to the vixen and cubs at the den. In red foxes, older offspring sometimes stay and help raise the next litter, a pattern also seen in wolves and many other canids.

Can foxes and dogs interbreed?

No. Although they are in the same family, foxes and domestic dogs are only distant relatives within it, separated by millions of years of evolution. Their chromosomes are very different: the red fox has 34 chromosomes plus a few small extra ones, while dogs, wolves and coyotes have 78. Despite occasional claims and viral stories, no fox-dog hybrid has ever been confirmed by genetic testing.

Dogs can, however, breed with their close relatives, gray wolves and coyotes, because they belong to the same genus, Canis, and have the same chromosome number.

Are foxes ever domesticated?

Foxes have never been domesticated in the way dogs have. Dogs descend from ancient wolves that lived alongside people for tens of thousands of years. A long-running Russian experiment, begun in 1959, bred silver foxes (a color form of the red fox) for tameness and produced friendlier foxes over many generations, but they remain a research population, not a domestic species. Foxes are wild animals, best watched from a distance; to learn where they live, see where do foxes live?.