Red Fox are the shyest member of the canine family in
Yellowstone. Foxes are most active at night, but are occasionally seen during the daytime.
It is interesting to compare the
relative size of ears to head size in the canine family.
Foxes have very large ears for their head
size. Coyotes have medium sized ears, while wolves have
relatively small ears for their head size. The larger ear size
of foxes enables them to hear and catch mice and rodents under
the snow. Wolves on the other hand spend little time mousing,
feeding instead on larger animals. Coyotes fall somewhere in
between the other two members of the family. It is thought that
the wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone may cause a decrease in
the number of coyotes in the park. As the coyote population
decreases it is expected that the fox population may increase as
they will not be out-competed by coyotes which share some of the
same foodbase. The prey base of wolves does not appear to
overlap with the foxes prey base.
