Gray foxes are the one wild dog in Texas that regularly climbs trees, using hooked claws and flexible forelegs to escape a coyote or reach fruit high in a canopy, a trait that ties them to the connected woods and brushy river banks of Caddo National Grasslands and the Brazos and Trinity corridors far more than to the state’s open plains.
Records run fairly level across the year, with modest peaks in February and April tied to denning season and the birth of kits, rather than one dominant month. Nearly 9,800 records make gray foxes one of the more frequently documented carnivores in the state, and NatureServe rates the population secure both in Texas and across its broader range, a healthier standing than several of the state’s more specialized predators.
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