Where Do Foxes Live? Fox Habitats, Dens and Range

Where do red foxes live?

The red fox has the largest natural range of any wild carnivore, covering nearly 70 million km² (27 million sq mi). It lives across all of Europe, in North Africa north of the Sahara, through most of Asia except the far southeast, and over most of North America from the Arctic to the southern United States. It is absent from much of the American Southwest and Mexico, where the gray fox and kit fox take its place. European settlers also released red foxes in Australia in the 19th century, and they now occupy most of the mainland.

Red foxes like “edge” habitat, where cover meets open ground: woodland borders, hedgerows and farmland, meadows, heaths, dunes, tundra margins and mountain slopes up to about 4,500 m (14,800 ft). They are equally at home in suburban gardens, parks, cemeteries and railway embankments.

Fox habitats around the world

About two dozen living species are called foxes, and between them they fill a remarkable variety of habitats:

Each species is shaped by its home. The Arctic fox has small ears, short legs and some of the warmest fur of any mammal, and it has been seen on sea ice close to the North Pole. Desert foxes such as the fennec go the other way, with huge ears that shed heat and pale coats that match the sand. The gray fox of the Americas is one of the few members of the dog family that can climb trees.

Do foxes live in dens?

Foxes use dens, but not in the way many people imagine. Outside the breeding season most red foxes sleep above ground, curled up in dense vegetation, under bramble thickets or beneath sheds and decking, moving between favorite resting spots. They may take shelter underground in very bad weather.

From late winter to summer, though, the den becomes the center of family life. The vixen gives birth underground in early spring, and the cubs spend their first weeks there. Parents often move cubs between several dens, especially if they are disturbed. By late summer the family has largely abandoned the den again.

What does a fox den look like?

A red fox den, or earth, is usually dug in well-drained soil on a slope, bank or embankment, under tree roots or among rocks. Foxes often save effort by enlarging a rabbit burrow or moving into an unused part of a badger sett. A typical earth has a main entrance that slopes steeply downward into a chamber, with tunnels 0.5–2.5 m (2–8 ft) below the surface and a main passage that can stretch up to about 17 m (56 ft), plus side branches and escape exits. Red fox dens are simpler than the burrow systems of badgers or Arctic foxes, but a good site among tree roots can be used for decades. Signs of an occupied earth include a strong musky smell, freshly dug soil and, in early summer, food remains near the entrance.

Other foxes build differently. Arctic foxes dig large, maze-like dens in raised, frost-free ground with many entrances, and the best sites are reused by generations of foxes for decades. Fennec foxes excavate sand burrows of up to 120 m² (1,300 sq ft) with as many as 15 entrances, sometimes linked to a neighboring family’s burrow. Gray foxes often den in hollow trees, sometimes several meters above the ground.

How big is a fox’s territory?

A red fox family’s home range depends on how much food is available. In rich habitat it covers about 5–12 km² (2–5 sq mi), and in poor habitat 20–50 km² (8–19 sq mi). In leafy residential suburbs, where food is easy to find, a territory may cover only 25–40 hectares (60–100 acres). Foxes mark their boundaries with urine, droppings and scent from glands, and patrol the same paths night after night.

Young red foxes leave home in autumn and winter to find territories of their own. Most settle within a few tens of kilometers of where they were born, but some travel remarkable distances; one was recorded covering 320 km (200 mi) in less than a year.

Why do foxes live in towns and cities?

Towns offer foxes everything they need: food from trash, compost and gardens, plenty of rodents and insects, safe places to den under sheds and buildings, and few large predators. Red foxes began colonizing British towns in the 1930s and are now familiar in cities such as London, Bristol and Dublin, as well as in other cities in Europe, Australia, Japan and North America. City foxes live at higher densities and in smaller territories than country foxes. They are mostly active at night, which is why many residents rarely see them; read more in our list of nocturnal animals.

Other species have adapted too. Gray foxes live in suburbs in parts of the United States, and the endangered San Joaquin kit fox lives on golf courses, school grounds and open lots in some California towns. To find out how urban foxes feed, see what do foxes eat?

Where are there no foxes?

There are no native foxes in Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand or Antarctica, or on most remote oceanic islands. Foxes reached Australia only because people brought them. New Zealand has no wild foxes, and the island of Tasmania is generally regarded as having no established fox population. In Iceland the only fox is the Arctic fox, the island’s only native land mammal.