Fox Facts
By Marni Weisz
She’s Having a Baby
The female fox is pregnant for less than two months before she gives birth to a litter of about four to six pups (although some litters can have as many as 12 babies).
No Place Like Home?
Foxes often use existing shelters to create their homes. This can mean dens that have already been dug into the ground by other animals, garden sheds, or even abandoned buildings. They may also live in dense tree branches, or hollowed out tree trunks.
Woof Woof
Even though their ears stick up like cats’, foxes belong to the dog family, along with coyotes and wolves.
Eat Up
The fox enjoys a diet of berries, fruit, veggies, bugs, worms, rabbits, mice, birds and snakes when they can catch them. Like raccoons, in urban areas foxes dine on garbage. They eat about a kilogram of food per day.
Night Owls
Foxes are most active at night, when their vision is best. They sleep most of the day away.
Life and Death
The lifespan of the fox varies depending on how tough a life it leads. In captivity, a fox can live up to 14 years. But out in the wild, where it’s hard to find food and there are lots of predators, a fox typically lives only a couple of years.