Gray foxes show up in 134 Oklahoma records spread across 29 counties, with the heaviest counts in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties at the state’s center and a long tail reaching from Cherokee County’s wooded hills to Cimarron County’s mesa country. Chickasaw National Recreation Area and the Wichita Mountains Wilderness hold records in the state’s southern tier.
The fox that climbs trees
Among North American canids, the gray fox alone climbs well. Semi-retractable claws and forearms that rotate let it scramble up leaning trunks and out onto limbs, where it rests, forages for fruit, and escapes dogs. That trick suits the broken, brushy country it prefers, the tangled edges of the Cross Timbers and the scrubby canyons of the Wichita Mountains rather than deep forest or open plain. An omnivore, it shifts seasonally between rabbits and rodents, insects, and persimmons and other soft mast.
Nocturnal habits, two yearly peaks
Gray foxes do most of their hunting after dark, so even a common local animal is rarely seen. Oklahoma’s counts crest in June, when kits are leaving the den, and rise again in October and November as young foxes disperse and range widely in search of territories of their own. Records in the coldest weeks thin but never stop, since foxes stay active all winter.
Status in Oklahoma
NatureServe ranks the gray fox S3, Vulnerable, in Oklahoma even though the species is secure globally. It is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous.
Full species profile
