Racial characters.—Skull heavy, narrow; color yellowish.
Measurements.—A male from Crater Lake, Klamath County, Oregon, measures: total length 1113; length of tail 441; hind foot 180; ear 112; weight 9 pounds.
Distribution.—From Trout Lake northward, through the higher Cascades, to Loomis ([Taylor] and [Shaw], 1929: 13).
Description.—The red fox of the Cascades is large and measures about 4 feet in total length, of which the tail comprises 15 inches. The body is slender and doglike; the legs long and slim; the tail thick and bushy, and the ears are large and erect. In the red phase the red fox of the Cascades is distinctly more yellowish than the red fox of the eastern United States; the head is especially yellow. The body has more red on the shoulder area than posteriorly, and is darkest on the rump. The tail is rather pale with a dusky, not black, area distally and a white tip. The ears are dusky. The lower legs and feet are black. The throat, chest and underparts are white. The "cross" phase, according to [Cowan] (1938: 202-206), is rather common in the Cascades. In cross foxes the color is darker, brown rather than yellowish, and the area from the nape of the neck back between the shoulders, including a bar across the shoulders, is deep blackish or grayish brown. In a pelt that is stretched out a cross is formed by the dark areas. The black and silver phases of the red fox are also said by [Cowan] to be relatively common in the Cascades, constituting 48 per cent of the population. Of 3,163 foxes traded at Fort Colville, in northeastern Washington, only 19 per cent were silver or cross. One fox, trapped in Okanogan County, is said by its captor to have been black above and straw colored beneath, with no white on the body.
Red foxes range from Alaska and northern Canada well southward into the United States. Related forms occur in Eurasia.
The red fox of Washington is an alpine animal, ranging at or slightly below timber-line. Here food is abundant in summer and fall but must be scarce in winter. In winter its habitat is difficult for man to reach and few persons penetrate the dangerous terrain where the fox lives. A few professional trappers regularly catch foxes in the Cascades but know little of their habits.
The feces of red foxes examined by [Taylor] and [Shaw] on Mt. Rainier contained remains of insects and berries ([Taylor] and [Shaw], 1927: 43).
The red fox is rare in Washington; it lives in inaccessible territory and its fur is not especially valuable. The animal is of relatively little economic importance.
The brood den of a red fox found by [Livezey] and Evendan (1943: 500) near Corvallis, Oregon, was two-thirds of the way up a 300-foot hill in a strip of oaks (Quercus garryana). Well-packed trails led to an entrance concealed in poison oak (Rhus diversiloba). Remains of a turkey, 5 ground squirrels, and a jack rabbit were found near the den. The entrance was 8 inches wide and 15 inches high. The tunnel tapered to 5 inches in diameter and was 47 feet long. Seven pups, 4 males and 3 females, were found in the den.