Wyoming’s red fox record is dominated by the Greater Yellowstone country. Of 1,036 records, Yellowstone National Park holds 436 and Grand Teton National Park another 284, with Teton and Park counties carrying most of the state total and scattered reports running from Albany County to Crook County in the far northeast.
An omnivore that hears mice under snow
A red fox eats what the season offers, voles and mice above all, plus rabbits, birds, insects, and berries. Its signature winter move is the mousing pounce, locating prey by sound beneath the snowpack and diving headfirst through the crust, which keeps it hunting open meadows even in deep-winter months. Coat color varies, and dark silver or cross-phase animals are the same species.
Dens in spring, wanderers in fall
Records crest in May and June, when adults are provisioning growing kits and the family is at its most visible around the den. Pairs often renovate an abandoned burrow rather than digging their own, and by autumn the year’s young disperse, sometimes traveling long distances, one reason a fox can turn up in almost any Wyoming county.
Status in Wyoming
NatureServe ranks the red fox S5, Secure, in Wyoming, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
