A morphometric study of two species of fox in northeastern Indiana

Abstract

Much has been written about the foxes, both the red fox (Vulpes fulva), and the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). Unfortunately, much of what has been written is either legendary, overemphasizing their swiftness and cunning behavior, or it casts them as notorious villains, wantonly destroying flocks of chickens or populations of game animals.The present study is a segment of a broader study of the ecology of red and gray foxes in northeastern Indiana.While correlations of age and sex with the skull characteristics of the two species of foxes have been carried out in other parts of North America (Churcher, 19601 Wood, 19581 Rohde, 1966), such an investigation has not previously been carried out with wild fox populations in northeastern Indiana. The purchase from, and cooperation of two fur buyers in Blackford and Delaware Counties made available an extensive collection of fox skulls, eyeballs, bacula, stomachs, and standard body measurements, some of which were used in this study.The objectives of the present investigation were to determine sex and age ratios and any correlations between skull characteristics and the sex and age structure of these samples from a wild population.