Red/Gray Hybrid, or just color variation?

[Sing_Mia_Song]

Just went out to turn the boys out after dinner and saw a fox skipping up the fence line, checking the manure pile for dinner. It’s always a treat to see them, and I frequently have red foxes visit throughout the year.

This one was smaller, the size of a gray, and had a red mask and bib, but the rest was gray, even the brush. Am I seeing a hybrid or an immature red? Or is it a true gray? Red are so dominant here that I probably wouldn’t know a gray if I fell over it!

Sorry, no pictures, and it was a good 50 feet away, so fine details eluded me.

[cssutton]

[QUOTE=Sing Mia Song;5169529]
Just went out to turn the boys out after dinner and saw a fox skipping up the fence line, checking the manure pile for dinner. It’s always a treat to see them, and I frequently have red foxes visit throughout the year.

This one was smaller, the size of a gray, and had a red mask and bib, but the rest was gray, even the brush. Am I seeing a hybrid or an immature red? Or is it a true gray? Red are so dominant here that I probably wouldn’t know a gray if I fell over it!

Sorry, no pictures, and it was a good 50 feet away, so fine details eluded me.[/QUOTE]

Grays have red “trim” in varying amounts.

You saw a gray.

http://kids.yahoo.com/animals/mammals/3895--Common+Gray+Fox

CSSJR

[Sing_Mia_Song]

Thanks, Claude! I’m used to seeing my family of reds (there’s a couple of kits in a den on my farm every year) but this is my first “up close and personal” with a gray.

[wateryglen]

just my 2 sense!

There are a myriad of color combos in grey foxes. We call 'em “red sided greys”. Some are nearly all red but no white tips tells you they are grey foxes and not red foxes. They have a different face too…imho.
And round here; we have fox colored coyotes that are smaller too. The come in all kinds of color combo’s. Sometimes you aren’t even sure what you’re seeing until you see how they move or their tail set & carriage.

[Marcella]

Great information. Thank you!

We have a ‘pink’ fox that likes to sleep on our yard waste pile (grass and leaves). He digs a small hole, and takes a mid-morning snooze. It is very warm in there–I know when he is sleeping because I can see the steam coming up from his little nest.

I normally only see very dark red foxes around here, but I’ve occasionally seen some grayish/reddish (hence the pink), and even a blondish that we thought was a coyote at first, but then as it trotted across the ice we immediately knew it was a fox.

[scheherazadetbmare]

[QUOTE=cssutton;5170413]
Grays have red “trim” in varying amounts.

You saw a gray.

http://kids.yahoo.com/animals/mammals/3895--Common+Gray+Fox

CSSJR[/QUOTE]

He’s right. When my horse and I came upon a “real” red fox, my BO wouldn’t believe me because of all the greys with their red hairs around the barn. When the red fox was run over on the road, she then believed that I’d seen a red one.

[sunridge1]

Then there is the "cross’ fox which is a melanistic color variant of the Red Fox.

[wateryglen]

Holy crap!!!

Sunbridge! Such big words for our forum?!!! Melanistic color variant?!!:eek::eek: Is it from outer space? A mutant?!!! We need to be edumacated!
:winkgrin:

[ladybugred]

I hadn’t realized that we had grey foxes in MD, until I read this post. I’ve seen loads of reds, never a grey. Ironically I saw my first one after reading this post, unfortunately he was dead in the road. I had to move him, can’t stand when critters get turned into pancakes, that’s why I’m sure.
Oh well, hopefully I’ll see a live one soon!

SMS hope you see your’s again soon!

LBR

[sunridge1]

[QUOTE=wateryglen;5184748]
Sunbridge! Such big words for our forum?!!! Melanistic color variant?!!:eek::eek: Is it from outer space? A mutant?!!! We need to be edumacated!
:winkgrin:[/QUOTE]

Oops sorry. Dem der red foxz cum in a tousand of dem der colors.

Ders red, den ders a black dat looks silvery, den ders a funny half black/silvery/red. An dats da trut.:lol: