New York’s 791 gray fox records describe a woodland animal that mostly escapes notice. Ulster and Onondaga counties lead the list, with Tompkins and St. Lawrence close behind, and the named sites, Green Lakes State Park, the Erie Canal corridor, and Siamese Ponds Wilderness, read as mixed hardwood country with plenty of brushy understory.
The fox that climbs
The gray fox is the only North American canid that routinely climbs trees. Semi-retractable claws and rotating forearms let it scramble up leaning trunks to rest on a limb or escape a dog, a trick its red fox cousin cannot match. It hunts mice, rabbits, and birds but leans harder on fruit and insects than most foxes, which suits it to the state’s woodlot edges and overgrown pastures. Mostly nocturnal and wary, it is seen far less often than it is present.
A fall swell in the record
Sightings reach their annual high from October through December, when the year’s young disperse from their home ranges onto unfamiliar ground and leaf fall opens up the understory. August is the quietest month, a stretch when dense summer cover keeps a secretive animal effectively invisible.
Status in New York
NatureServe ranks the gray fox S5, Secure, in New York, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
