South Dakota’s gray fox records cluster in the state’s eastern prairie-pothole country, around Sand Lake and Waubay national wildlife refuges and nearby state game production areas, where river-bottom woodland and dense shelterbelts break up the surrounding farmland. That patchwork of brushy cover is exactly what this fox needs. Open, treeless plains give it nothing to hide in or climb.
Gray foxes are the only wild dog in the country that regularly climbs trees, using forelegs that rotate at the wrist and claws that stay hooked for grip. They den in rock crevices, brush piles, or hollow logs, and sometimes in a tree cavity several feet off the ground, reachable by climbing parents but not by most predators.
South Dakota’s thirteen records cluster in January, March, April, and October, with none logged in summer. That’s more likely a gap in observer effort than a true seasonal absence, given how few total records exist. NatureServe still ranks the species S5, secure, in South Dakota despite that small record count.
Full species profile
