Gray fox ranks twelfth in Missouri’s record count and shares red fox’s S4 NatureServe status, apparently secure across the state. Unlike red fox, gray fox climbs trees, using hooked claws to escape danger or den in a hollow limb, a trait that makes it a distinct search target around the wooded, rocky terrain at Mark Twain National Forest and the granite outcrops of Elephant Rocks State Park.
Records peak from January through March, the opposite season from red fox’s spring high, with reduced leaf cover likely making a rocky-country animal easier to spot in winter. All 406 records are GBIF entries, none from iNaturalist, in a dataset small enough that individual months carry real weight; treat the winter peak as a hint worth testing, not a fixed pattern.
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