Species: Coyote (Canis latrans); Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

What to look for

  1. Weight and build. Coyote 18 to 30 pounds against 7.5 to 15 pounds for a red fox, so the fox reads as a small animal on long legs.
  2. Legs and feet. Black on a red fox. A coyote's front legs are whitish and the outer sides of the hind legs reddish.
  3. Tail. A red fox tail is 11.5 to 16 inches (29 to 41 cm), heavily furred, round in cross section and tipped white. A coyote's is 10 to 16 inches (25 to 41 cm) and usually black tipped.
  4. Coat. Reddish yellow above on a fox, darker on the back. Light gray or dull yellow with black-tipped outer hairs on a coyote.
  5. Track size. Coyote front track 2.1 to 3.1 inches (5.4 to 7.8 cm) long. Red fox front track 1.9 to 2.5 inches (4.7 to 6.4 cm) long, on fur-lined feet that blur the outline.
  6. Negative space in the track. The gap between the toes and the pad prints as an X shape for red fox and an H shape for coyote.

Easily confused with

Gray fox. The gray fox is the red fox's closest lookalike in the same range. The red fox's black legs and white tail tip are the marks to check.

Domestic dog. The trail is more reliable than the print: coyote tracks overlap and fall 18 to 22 inches apart, while a medium dog's do not overlap and fall 6 to 8 inches apart.

Where and when

Red foxes prefer the borders of forested areas and adjacent open land, avoiding dense unbroken forest, and are most common in open northern and western country. Coyotes take semi-open brushy ground, timber edges and open farmland, and are still expanding, most abundant in grassland. Both are mainly nocturnal though both turn up in daylight, so most sightings are a shape at dusk rather than a portrait.

Related signs

  • Coyote vs wolf: A gray wolf is roughly twice a coyote's size.
  • Coyote scat: Coyote scat is ropelike and twisted, averaging 3 to 4 inches long and about an inch across, usually packed with hair and bone.
  • Coyote tracks: A coyote track is a compact oval about 2.5 inches long and 2 inches wide, with four toes and toenail marks that nearly always print.

Sources