Vulpes vulpes

The red tiger has a slender body, a long and pointed snout, a slender nose, a flat frontal bone with a narrow groove in the middle, and large, high and pointed ears that stand upright. The limbs are short and the tail is long, slightly longer than half the body length. The tail is thick, with long and fluffy fur, and the body is covered with long needle hairs. The winter fur has abundant undercoat. The upper part of the back of the ear is black, which is obviously different from the fur color on the head, and the tail tip is white. The soles of the feet are covered with dense short hairs; there are tail glands that can emit a strange smell called "fox smell"; there are 4 pairs of nipples.
The fur color varies greatly depending on the season and region. The fur produced in southern regions such as Guangxi is thin and short, while the fur produced in the north is long and dense. Generally, the fur on the back is brown or brown-red, or brown-white, with gray-white hair tips,

Origin: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Vatican, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan.
Introduced: Australia, New Zealand.
Distribution in China: Guangdong, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Anhui, Hebei, Gansu, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Liaonin

There are 47 subspecies of red fox, which is the largest and most common fox.

Red foxes have well-developed hearing and smell, and like to act alone. They hunt at night. They usually come out at night and sleep in caves during the day. Their long tails are moisture-proof and warm, but in remote places, they sometimes come out during the day to look for food. Although the red fox has short legs and feet, its claws are very sharp and it can run very fast. When chasing prey, it can reach a speed of more than 50 kilometers per hour. It is also good at swimming and climbing trees.

The red fox is cunning, has a strong memory, and is agile. Unlike other canines, which mostly hunt to obtain food, it can think of various ways and strategies to capture prey. Red foxes often first look for traces of red foxes in areas with lush vegetation and frequent activities of wild mice and hares based on smells, calls and footprints, and then approach their prey alertly and quietly, even crawling on the ground to prevent the prey from being frightened and running away, and then crouching down to prepare for the opportunity to move, then lightly step forward, then speed up, and finally run, suddenly attack and capture the prey. Sometimes they pretend to be in pain or chase their tails to attract the attention of small animals such as burrowing mice, and suddenly catch them when they get close.

Red foxes are suspicious by nature, and most of them observe the surrounding environment carefully before taking action, so there is a word "fox suspicion" in China. When encountering an enemy, the red fox will use a secret weapon hidden in its body - the anal gland, which secretes a "body odor" that can almost suffocate other animals. The foul smell forces the pursuer to stop. In critical situations, the red fox can also escape by sneaking into the flock of sheep, jumping into the river and hiding. The red fox caught by the hunter also has a set of "playing dead" skills. It can temporarily breathe weakly, seem to be dying, and be at the mercy of others, but when people are not prepared, it will suddenly escape quickly. These cunning behaviors are all superb survival methods of the red fox.

If the food cannot be eaten for a while, the red fox will carefully choose a hidden place, bury it carefully, and go through some camouflage and eliminate various traces before leaving to avoid being discovered by other animals. When hunting, red foxes like to tease prey that can no longer escape, and often kill all the prey they can catch and never let them go. This is called "killing behavior", which may be caused by instinct, some kind of stimulation, or both.

There are many variant types of body color in red foxes, such as black foxes or dark foxes with black fur all over their body; silver foxes or black foxes with black base fur all over their body but white hair tips, which appear silver under light; cross foxes with reddish brown all over their body and black cross-shaped hair on their shoulders. In addition, there are Japanese sword foxes, etc., but different color types do not represent different subspecies, and no matter what color type, the tip of the tail is white. The areas with more silver foxes are northeastern United States and Canada, followed by Northern Europe and northern Siberia. In different regions, the ratio of silver fox to red fox ranges from 1:20 to 1:5. This mutation is closely related to the climatic conditions such as humidity and light in the place of origin.

Listed in Appendix I, Appendix II and Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2019 at Level III. Red fox Afghan subspecies, red fox white-footed subspecies (red fox Punjab subspecies), red fox Tibetan subspecies.

Listed in the Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 2016 ver3.1-Least Concern (LC).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" February 25, 2021 version Level 2.

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