Red foxes reach 36 of Idaho’s counties, but the 315 records lean toward mountain and valley ground: Valley County leads the list, with Custer, Fremont, and Latah behind it. It is one of the few mammals equally at home on farm edges and in high meadows.
A small hunter with a wide menu
Little heavier than a big house cat beneath its long legs and bushy coat, the red fox hunts mice and voles by sound, pouncing through grass and even snow, and fills out its diet with rabbits, birds, insects, and berries. It dens in burrows it digs or borrows, and surplus food goes into shallow scattered caches for later.
Spring means a den full of kits
Kits are born in early spring, and through April, May, and June the parents hunt almost constantly to feed them. Idaho’s reports crest in exactly those months, when adults are abroad in daylight and young foxes begin appearing at den mouths.
Status in Idaho
NatureServe ranks the red fox S4, Apparently Secure, in Idaho, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
