In folklore, the red fox is often characterized as a cunning, wily or crafty animal, but I wanted to know if there was any truth to these popular beliefs.

It turns out, the legends may have merit, and the red fox’s sense of awareness, use of habitat, and superb hunting skills are some of the reasons why.

To find out more, I started with Jenny Dickson, a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection wildlife biologist.

Here’s her interpretation: “I think ‘crafty’ is a good description for the red fox, in part by how well they use their habitat and how they avoid predators, like coyotes.

“Red foxes are very much aware of their surroundings,” Dickson said, adding, “They know how to position themselves in the right place behind a fence or fallen tree limb to catch their prey. They also know how to move out of a territory when coyotes move in and move back only when the coyotes have left.”

“They’re also extremely clever and adaptable to living in unusual places like cemeteries, or in urban habitats,” Dickson said.

When I shared with Dickson that I recently saw a red fox calmly walking down a sidewalk in the Borough of Stonington at 9 p.m., Dickson said, “Yes, they slip in and slip out of places like that and we never notice them, yet they notice us.”

Shawn Rossler, furbearer specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, a state that has the highest density of red foxes in the nation, in the southwestern part of the state, concurs with Dickson.

“They have to be crafty to catch the mammals they do,” Rossler said, naming cottontail rabbits, ground squirrels, mice and voles as some of the small mammals red foxes hunt.

Mark Baldwin, a British wildlife writer and blogger, sheds more light on how the red fox may have earned the monikers of “sly” and “crafty” by describing in fascinating detail how they hunt rabbits.

“The fox crouches low, belly to the ground, and staying low, runs quickly from one area of cover to another, where it stops and resumes the crouch. If no cover is available, the fox stalks across in the open, freezing periodically as the prey looks in its direction,” Baldwin writes. 

“When the fox judges it is within striking distance, it ‘explodes’ from its spot, and a remarkable race ensues. 

“As the fox runs, it employs its tail as a counterbalance, as it twists and turns in pursuit of its prey,” he said.

This beautiful animal, I learned, is equipped with an impressive arsenal of physical attributes.

For starters, red foxes are deceptively small and fast.

Adult red foxes weigh about 10 pounds, stand 26 to 28 inches high, and have a sleek, three-foot-long body, with a bushy two-foot tail called a brush. They’ve been observed jumping seven feet high from a standing position, and can sprint up to 30 miles an hour.

It’s believed red foxes can hear low frequency sounds, like the stirrings of a tiny mouse three feet under a snow drift.

“Their big ears (which move independently) allow them to almost triangulate where the mice are,” Rossler said.

Their eyes are different, too. Unlike most canids, red foxes have vertically slit pupils, as opposed to round ones. According to Baldwin, this cat-like feature is said to help them “regulate the amount of light entering the eye, helping the fox hunt across a wide variety of different light conditions.”

Distinguishing red foxes from grey foxes can often be confusing.

“The surefire way to tell the difference is to look for the color at the tip of the tail. Gray foxes have black-tipped tails, while red fox tails are white,” according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Finally, red foxes breed from roughly the end of December to early March, and excavate dens three to 10 feet deep, with several exits, to raise their families in. Both parents share in raising their young, but by the end of summer, they usually part ways with their offspring.

If you know or have heard of any fun or unusual animal stories, please write me, and I will gladly share these stories or photos in future columns. Enjoy!

Bill Hobbs is a resident of Stonington and a lifelong wildlife enthusiast. For comments, he can be reached at whobbs246@gmail.com.