Red foxes account for 2,939 New York records spread across virtually every landscape the state offers. Ulster County leads the tally, and the named sites run from Long Island, Jones Beach State Park, and the dunes of Fire Island National Seashore up through Harriman State Park and into the farm country between, an animal as much at home in beach grass as in a back pasture.
A listener first, then a pounce
The red fox hunts by ear. It locates mice and voles moving under grass or snow, then strikes with its characteristic high, pinning pounce, and that mouse-heavy diet draws it to the state’s fields, meadow edges, and mown roadsides. Rabbits, birds, insects, fruit, and carrion fill out the menu across the seasons. In late winter pairs court loudly, and by early spring the vixen has settled into an earthen den, often an enlarged woodchuck burrow, with a litter of kits.
May belongs to the family den
Sightings peak in May, when both parents run constant foraging trips to feed growing kits and the family shows itself around the den mouth in daylight. The record stays steady the rest of the year, rising modestly again in late fall as young foxes disperse and fresh snow starts recording tracks.
Status in New York
NatureServe ranks the red fox S5, Secure, and the species is native to New York. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
