Learning about
Gray Fox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Urocyon cinereoargenteus (Schreber, 1775) |
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Gray Fox range
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The Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) is a species of canid ranging from southern Canada, throughout most of the lower United States and Central America, to Venezuela. This species and the closely related Island Fox are the only living members of the genus Urocyon, which is considered to be among the most primitive of the living canids.
Description
The gray fox is small and has a pepper brown back, tawny sides, neck and legs, a white belly, and a black stripe along its back and tail. Another black stripe crosses its face from the nose to the eye and continuing to the side of the head. Standing about 12-16 inches at the shoulders, weighing up to 16 pounds and having an overall body length of up to 47 inches, the gray fox is an agile canid able to scurry up and down trees with relative ease. The pelage is coarse when compared to other foxes, with the face, upper part of the head, flanks, back and most of the tail gray. The throat and undersides are whitish, and the ventral surface of the tail tends toward a rusty brown. The individual hairs along the middle of the back and top of the tail are heavily tipped with black, giving the appearance of a dark mane. The back and tail bear black-tipped bristles which stand erect during body posturing displays
