Fox or coyote?

jjnjjtucker

12 years ago

Debate on if this is a fox or coyote. Found in navarre fl backyard. Panhandle.

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User

12 years ago

I didn't comment on this photo when it was first posted, but now that I look at it, it is troubling me.

Did you take this photo? That doesn't look like Florida, it looks like some place in the desert southwest based on the ground and the few plants visible.

Lazygardens - that black boot thing only works with one species of North American Fox, the Red Fox. All the other foxes in North America (Gray, Kit, and Swift foxes) do not. They have light gray/tan legs. Arctic Foxes don't have dark boots either, but this certainly isn't an Arctic Fox.

My feeling is that this is a Swift Fox (Vulpes macrotis).....of course this assumes this picture even came from North America!

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Comments (15)

dbarron
12 years ago
It's a coyote or at least part a coyote.
User
12 years ago
Coyote with mange ... that's why it's bald.

Foxes, even with mange, have dark 'boots" on their legs.
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zzackey
12 years ago
I think it's a fox. Coyotes are much bigger.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years ago
OP said picture was taken in the Florida panhandle...Navarre.
mossy_oak_mudslinger
11 years ago
http://animalstime.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/do-foxes-eat-cats1.jpg
mossy_oak_mudslinger
11 years ago
Well, this fox's face and ears look very similar to your photo. Notice the white on the mouth is the same too.
padfoot4768
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Its a desert fox its fur is short but its tail is long and bushy its kind of like and arctic fox except this fox lives in the desert.
summersrhythm_z6a
11 years ago
May be a Cross fox. Check this out, there are 7 types: http://www.boredpanda.com/fox-species-wildlife-photography/
User
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
"OP said picture was taken in the Florida panhandle...Navarre."

Yes, they did. But that photo wasn't taken in Florida. The vegetation in the background isn't right and this species of fox doesn't occur anywhere near Florida.

Everything about that animal looks like a Swift Fox (Vulpes macrotis) to me although the hair is a bit short. But the size of the ears, color, shape of the body, etc. all look like macrotis to me. And the habitat in the background further supports this ID....assuming it was shot in North America? I've seen a lot of photos on the internet with the wrong location listed.

The Cross Fox (and all the other color patterns of Red Fox) have a heavier muzzle and smaller ears.
charliemaine55
11 years ago
It a exotic fox probably someones pet that got out or abandoned.
Wesley Croft
11 years ago
That is 100% Fox, just Ruppell's Fox, they are from Africa. Sometimes they shed hair like that when they are changing between their winter coat and their summer coat.

www.foxesandfriends.com
Wesley Croft
11 years ago
If it was definitely in Florida, it could be a rare color morph or a Red Fox.
dbarron
11 years ago
Can't say I ever saw Ruppell's Fox before...boy it's a skinny thing.
User
11 years ago
Seeing that Ruppell's Fox and assuming that we can discount Florida as the source of the photo, I did a little internet "research". I am pretty confident the fox in the photo is the Arabian subspecies of the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes arabica) which would agree not only by the overall pelage but also by the small patch of obviously desert habitat seen behind the fox. It clearly wasn't taken in a Florida backyard.