BigGameHoundsmen.com

Guys ,I am interested in any physical differences in the grey fox from state to state ,especially in size (weight).Here in western Oregon the average size seems to be 7 to 9 lbs.. The biggest i've weighed has been 10 lbs..Bobcat differ in size and head shape from region to region so i was wondering if you have noticed anything similar in the grey fox? Pictured is western Oregon fox.

We have 2 grey fox in ms. One being a smaller fox like a large house cat wich we call the smut face grey. Then we have a little larger red sided grey about the same size as the red fox. Not sure on weights cause we don't shoot fox here.

Never weighed a grey fox here in CA, but that sounds about right.

Here in Northern CA they weigh the same...7-10 lbs...biggest one I weighed was almost 12 lbs. and I don't imagine they get too much bigger here. All the ones I've seen look the same as in your picture, except some with more red than gray.

i would say the one in the pic is about the same as us here in northern mn. 7-10 lbs would be right for a average size.

We have smut faced and red sided grays here in fl. But I don't recall seeing any with the black stripe on the top of the tail as predominate as the one pictured. Never weighed one but I'd say 7 to 10 lbs. is about right.

Thanks guys ,seems like some difference in color might be the only difference .

In this area of New Mexico and Arizona our true grays are just as described mostly under 9 pounds. We have a lot of what I call cross foxes as they look like a gray/red cross and they run a good deal larger and are found mostly in river bottom areas and close to towns as well

.We also have some true red fox but not very many but we have several large red fox communities on one of our local golf courses and they get very tame.Although these are the largest fox we have they are still smaller than the bright red foxes I use to harvest in the Dakota and Montana.

Same here in Illinois but they are kinda rare around me.

Look about the same here ive seen some that were quite a bit bigger than others but for the most part they look to be about the size of the one in the picture. Has anyone else had a big drop in the Fox populaition in the last year? We had more fox than you could count then about a year ago they seemed to all start getting sick I started to see alot of them stumbling around in the middle of the day I fallowed one around one day about 1 pm it would walk about 50 yards then lay down then get up and walk some more its eyes were realy gooped up and it just wondered around now there isnt many in the area

Yes,gray fox population goes up and down here a lot. Last year we had a lot of fox but this year it seems there are few. We will have a lot one year and they will disappear, then it takes two or three years to build back up again. I think they get distemper or parvo and it wipes them out.

That's what i've heard to.If enough of them aren't harvested they'll overpopulate and some disease will wipe them out.Which makes sense because that's how nature works.

Brandon

Not sure where you are in Southern Oregon...Grey fox are found in locations like a coon and problems arise quite the same with canine distemper....The ranches I hunt on run in cycles...Last year I had fox behind every bush and looks like they had a die off....They appear to recover well.

With my limited experience running them with hounds, they are not very big and a big one would be around ten pounds...What a blast with the hounds but a draw back for the guy who rigs multiple species?....I noticed my coyote strikes have ramped up once I allowed the hounds to run fox and drives me crazy when wanting to rig a bobcat.

Sure wished we had a decent population where I live farther North.

Mike
I have hurd alot of people say that after allowing hounds to run fox they tend to have some sort of a coyote problem I have not had a problem with that but my dogs are put on fox from day one then cleaned up on the off game so maybe thats why i do not notice a cyote problem soley caused by running fox. I do know that when the fox numbers were high I had a hard time keeping off the fox long enuff to get a cat goin usually had to get higher up in the mt's to have a better chance of running a cat

Brandon

I find it amazing that the Grey fox are found at all higher locations in the Siskiyous, they like the lower type farm lands the best, but I find sign even at the highest locations.....This is one advantage I find here in the Northern part of the State, we have so few fox that it doesn't impact your rigging on other species like bobcat....They sure are fun to run with the hounds.

Mike