Head to head
Coyote vs Red Fox
Both have spread into towns and suburbs across North America, both are blamed for missing cats and raided bins, and at a glance in headlights they can look alike. But the coyote is a true dog of the genus Canis, three or four times the weight of a red fox, able to hunt in pairs or family groups and to bring down prey as large as a deer. The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, genus Vulpes, and it is a solitary hunter of small prey with a very different manner.
| Coyote | Red Fox | |
|---|---|---|
| Genus | Canis, the true dogs | Vulpes, the true foxes |
| Weight | 8 to 20 kg | 3 to 7 kg |
| Build | Long-legged, dog-like, carries tail low when running | Low-slung, very bushy tail often held horizontal, black legs |
| Pupils | Round | Vertical slits |
| Social life | Pairs and family packs; cooperative hunting | Solitary hunter; pair shares a territory in the breeding season |
| Prey size | Insects and mice up to deer | Mostly rodents, rabbits, birds, insects, fruit |
| Interaction | Dominant; kills and excludes red foxes | Avoids coyotes; shifts toward human areas to escape them |
| Conservation status | Least Concern; range expanding | Least Concern; the most widespread wild carnivore |
Coyote vs Red Fox: common questions
How can I tell a coyote from a red fox at night?
Size and shape are the best cues. A coyote is about the size of a medium dog, standing knee-high or higher on a person, with long legs, a fairly narrow chest, large pointed ears, and a bushy tail it carries low or straight out behind, often at a trot. A red fox is much smaller and lower to the ground, with a slender muzzle, black stockings on its legs, white-tipped enormous tail, and a lighter, almost cat-like movement. Colour is unreliable: coyotes range from grey to reddish, and not all red foxes are red, but the black lower legs and white tail tip are good fox signs.
Do coyotes kill foxes?
Yes, regularly. Coyotes treat red foxes as competitors and will chase, kill, and occasionally eat them, though they rarely consume the whole animal, which shows the killing is about removing a rival rather than feeding. This has a landscape-scale effect: studies across North America show that where coyote numbers are high, red foxes are scarce in the open countryside and instead concentrate in and around towns, suburbs, and airports, places coyotes use less. The fox effectively shelters near people. The same dynamic plays out between wolves and coyotes, with the coyote as the loser.
Which is more of a threat to pets and people?
Coyotes account for nearly all the concern. They are large enough to kill cats and small dogs, and in a few habituated urban populations they have bitten people, usually where coyotes have been fed. Attacks on humans remain very rare and are almost always preventable by never feeding them and by hazing bold individuals. Red foxes are too small to be a physical danger to anything bigger than a rabbit or a chicken; they will take poultry and occasionally a very small pet, but they pose essentially no risk to people. Both can carry rabies and mange.