What Do Foxes Prey On?

While popular culture often portrays foxes as primarily eating rabbits, their diet is much more varied. These highly adaptable creatures are opportunistic feeders and their diet varies based on their location, the season, and food availability. Fox species include the red fox, fennec fox, gray fox, kit fox, and arctic fox. The red fox is the most widely distributed carnivore globally, inhabiting regions across Europe, Asia, North America, and the United Kingdom.

What Foxes Eat

Foxes are omnivores, consuming a wide range of foods. Their diet consists of small mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, eggs, insects, worms, fish, crabs, mollusks, and various plant-based foods like fruits, berries, vegetables, seeds, fungi, and carrion. Here’s how their diet changes with the seasons:

How Foxes Hunt

Foxes are crepuscular hunters, meaning they are most active during the dawn and dusk, though they can hunt at any time. They rely on their keen hearing and excellent sense of smell to detect prey. Foxes are known for their stalking technique and typically use a combination of pouncing and digging to capture prey, especially when hunting animals that burrow, such as rodents or rabbits. When hunting larger animals like rabbits, they will stalk the prey until they are close enough and wait for the right moment to strike when the animal begins to run.

How Fox Cubs Learn to Hunt

Fox cubs begin their lives by nursing on their mother’s milk. Once they reach about a month old, the mother will regurgitate food she has eaten, like small mammals and insects, to feed her cubs. As they grow, they are allowed to leave the den for play sessions, during which the mother brings small live prey like mice, frogs, and grasshoppers to teach the cubs essential hunting skills. Eventually, the cubs accompany the mother on hunts, where they learn to stalk and pounce. They also observe her behavior of storing food in caches for later consumption.

Rural vs. Urban Fox Diets

The diet of urban foxes can differ significantly from their rural counterparts due to the presence of human activity. In urban areas, food sources like mice, rats, and roadkill are abundant. Urban foxes are more likely to feed on rats, pigeons, and scavenged food like pet food, bread, and food scraps left out for birds. As opportunistic feeders, urban foxes will also raid garbage bins for edible matter.

In contrast, rural foxes rely more on hunting small mammals and foraging for fruits and berries in the wild. While both urban and rural foxes are opportunistic in their feeding habits, urban foxes have more access to human-provided food sources, making their diet more varied.

Conclusion

Foxes are highly adaptable and omnivorous, feeding on a wide array of foods, from small mammals and insects to fruits and carrion. Whether living in rural or urban environments, foxes display remarkable flexibility in their feeding habits. Their hunting techniques, from stalking to pouncing, are vital for capturing prey in the wild. Urban foxes, in particular, have developed a more varied diet, taking advantage of food left by humans and scavenging garbage. As opportunistic predators, foxes are well-equipped to thrive in diverse environments, showcasing their resilience and adaptability.

animal tags： Foxes