by Rick LoBello, Education Curator

Rarely seen by even the most avid desert hikers, three species of fox live in the Chihuahuan Desert, the gray fox, swift fox and kit fox. The larger gray fox is more commonly seen within city limits.   Watch for them at dawn, dusk and at night, but good luck in finding one, they are very secretive. During the breeding season gray fox vocalizations range from mews and coos, to growls and snarls, to barks and screams. When I lived in Big Bend National Park gray foxes were often seen and heard near the Chisos Basin campground where people would often confuse the screams of a fox for that of a mountain lion.

Here in El Paso the range of the kit fox and swift fox come together on Fort Bliss just north of the city and on into New Mexico where the two species are for the most part very difficult to tell a part.  

Foxes are in the same family Canidae along with wolves, jackals, painted dogs and domestic dogs.  There are ten species of fox distributed around the world.  At the Zoo we have fennec foxes from the Sahara Desert region of North Africa.  They are part of our education collection and are shown to the public during special education programs. 

If you see a fox while hiking, camping or in your backyard, look carefully to determine which species of fox you are seeing.   Kit foxes and swift foxes are smaller and have larger ears than gray foxes, but the best field mark is the tail. If you see a band of black on the top of the tail then you know you are seeing a gray fox.

During my many years living in Big Bend National Park I saw a few kit foxes and discovered that they prefer more open and sandier areas of the park.  Here is the El Paso area the best habitat for kit foxes and swift foxes would be in far east El Paso on Fort Bliss and near Hueco Tanks.

The gray fox is found throughout most of the US.   The IUCN has assessed the status of the kit fox and swift foxes and summarizes their status on the Red List as follows:

Kit Fox, Least Concern, population decreasing.

The species is common to rare. Density fluctuates with annual environmental conditions, which are dependent upon precipitation.  In Mexico, data on which to base a population estimate for Kit Foxes are only available from two localities with very specific characteristics (presence of prairie dog towns). Therefore, the estimation of a population size for the country or even population trends is not possible with current information. However, because natural habitats occupied by the Kit Fox are being transformed, it is safe to assume that, overall, populations of the Kit Fox in Mexico are declining.

In the United States, Kit Fox abundance is unknown. Populations are relatively large and trends are assumed to be relatively stable in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and possibly the Mjoave Desert of California, based on extensive remaining suitable habitat. Populations in Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon are relatively small and trends are unknown (Cypher 2003). Populations of the Endangered (USFWS) San Joaquin Kit Fox in the San Joaquin Valley of California are likely still declining due to continuing habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation (USFWS 1998).

Swift Fox, Least Concern, Population stable.

Historically, the Swift Fox was considered an abundant predator of the prairies, but numbers were severely depleted by the late 1880s and early 1900s. In Canada, the last recorded specimen was collected in 1928.  Swift Fox populations began to recover over portions of their former range beginning in the 1950s. In the core of their distribution, in Kansas, Colorado and the Oklahoma panhandle, and New Mexico, populations are considered stable.