Red Fox

Red Fox: Species Facts

Range & Habitat

According to its account in Spain's Atlas and Red Book of Terrestrial Mammals (2007), produced for Spain's National Biodiversity Inventory and published on the environment ministry's (MITECO) website, the red fox lives in every kind of environment, from the subarctic to the desert, in forests, open country and even cities; in Spain it is found from sea level up to high mountains, as high as 3,000 m, and it does better in diverse, fragmented habitats than in uniform ones. A 2017 study describes it as a highly adaptable habitat generalist whose distribution covers the entire northern hemisphere, from arctic to temperate climates and from natural to highly urban landscapes.^[1][2]

The fox is an opportunistic carnivore whose diet is based on whatever is most abundant or easiest to obtain at a given moment, the 2007 account says. While raising cubs it prefers medium-sized prey such as the rabbit, which gives more energy for the effort; it also eats small mammals, carrion of domestic or wild hoofed animals, gamebirds, fruit and invertebrates.^[1]

Territory. The size of a fox's home range, and how much it overlaps with its neighbours', depends on how abundant food is and how it is distributed, according to the 2007 account; in Spain, social units from pairs to social groups have been described. Foxes are mainly nocturnal, with peaks at dawn and dusk, and more active by day in little-frequented areas. In the 2017 study of 52 GPS-collared foxes in Norway and Sweden, home ranges varied from 0.95 km² to 44 km² (90 % local convex hull); elevation, the share of farmland and sex explained half of that variation, elevation most strongly. The authors describe red foxes as showing varying degrees of territorial behaviour, with social structures from pair bonds to family groups with helpers.^[1][2]

Winter. Foxes usually mate in January and February, the 2007 account says, and cubs are born in the den after a 52-day gestation; in Spain a litter can number from one to seven. Young foxes begin to disperse at the end of summer and carry on into winter: males travel further and more often, and the distance covered is inversely related to the average size of home ranges.^[1]

People. In human-dominated environments, rubbish and the carcasses of domestic animals make up more than half of the fox's diet, according to the 2007 account. The 2017 study found smaller home ranges in more productive landscapes and concluded that the influence of farmland on home range size shows how human alteration of the landscape can affect where and how red foxes live; the authors suggest the species' plasticity may be contributing to population increases and northern range expansions.^[1][2]

The Picos de Europa National Park covers 66,030 ha in the provinces of Asturias, León and Cantabria. It was first declared in 1918 as the Montaña de Covadonga National Park, reclassified by Law 16/1995 and enlarged in 2015. MITECO describes it as representing the ecosystems of the Atlantic forest, with the largest limestone formation in Atlantic Europe. Its most characteristic vegetation, according to MITECO's page on the Picos de Europa Biosphere Reserve (declared on 10 July 2003), is extensive beech and oak forest at the foot of the massifs.^[5][6][7]

The Picos de Europa in August 2025. On 16 August 2025 the Government of Asturias listed among its active wildfires one at Camarmeña (Cabrales) and asked people to avoid recreational and sports activities in the Picos de Europa and the Cantabrian Mountains. The same day the Government of Cantabria raised its regional emergency plan to level 1 because smoke from fires in Asturias and Castilla y León was affecting the Liébana district, and asked people to cancel any sports or recreational activity and transit in the Picos de Europa.^[8][9]

Threats

The 2007 account states that there are no factors threatening the species in Spain.^[1]

Disease. Some diseases can limit fox populations, the 2007 account says. Canine distemper has repeatedly caused outbreaks with high mortality, which have been proposed to recur when the population reaches a certain density. The most important parasitic disease is mange: in the Iberian Peninsula its outbreaks affect fairly small areas, with more moderate mortality than in Scandinavia, but models and field data agree that mange can reduce a fox population by 50 % during the years an outbreak lasts. In northern and eastern Europe the fox is a reservoir of rabies, which the 2007 account described as close to being controlled thanks to costly oral vaccination campaigns.^[1]

Conflict with people. The fox can limit natural populations of small game and, in particular, cause restocking to fail; it can also affect some threatened species, particularly steppe birds, and is occasionally linked to damage to livestock, according to the 2007 account.^[1]

Conservation Status & Work

Vulpes vulpes: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (global assessment of the species, published in 2025).^[10]

Numbers. There are no abundance estimates for Spain as a whole, according to the 2007 account; densities can vary regionally between 0.4 and 20 foxes per km², depending on the food available from rubbish and carrion.^[1]

A game species. The Picos de Europa National Park lies partly in Castilla y León, whose hunting law (Law 4/2021) lists the fox (Vulpes vulpes) among the small-game mammals in its Annex I of game species. The 2007 account says that rational management of fox populations involves controlling human food sources, such as rubbish dumps, and hunting the fox as a game species.^[1][3][5]

Inside national parks. Spain's National Parks Law (Law 30/2014) considers sport and commercial hunting incompatible with national parks; for management reasons, and in line with the best scientific knowledge, the park administration may programme population control and habitat restoration.^[4]