The Kit Fox once again a stable resident of the Texas Countryside--like all wild canids, breeding once a year in early Winter producing 1 to 6 kits annually.....................like our coyotes, a food generalist with a great taste for small rodents, reptiles, birds and insects...................Good to know that this little fox is once again gaining a toe-hold in it's historical Western Prairie homeland

WILD ABOUT TEXAS: Kit foxes: the little-known little canines of the Midwest

The Kit fox (Vulpes velox) is a small canine that lives throughout the western third of this state, including the most of the Panhandle, the western portions of the Edwards Plateau and the entire Trans-Pecos region. It prefers to live in grasslands and open desert habitats, although it apparently also thrives in and around cultivated fields and pasture lands.The Kit fox, also known as the swift fox, is the smallest of all North American foxes, only about the size of a full grown jack rabbit. Adult males, the larger of the two sexes, can achieve a total length of almost 3 feet, one-third of which is tail length. The maximum weight is a diminutive 5 pounds.
The fur on the upper parts is sandy colored, highlighted with white and black, giving it the appearance of being grayish. The back of the ears are a distinctive yellowish brown. The sides of the muzzle are highlighted with black, as is the angle from the eye to the base of the ear, although these are not necessarily always distinctive. The tail is gray on top, white underneath, and ends in a black tip. The legs are usually reddish.
The Kit fox is a dietary generalist, with small mammals taking up the vast majority of its diet. It has been known to feed on kangaroo rats, rabbits, mice, lizards, amphibians, fish, small birds and insects. One dietary study showed that mammals composed 62 percent of the kit fox's food intake and insects made up 29 percent, with the remaining 11 percent made up of the other food items. Interestingly enough, no game birds nor poultry were devoured, even though two den sites were no more than 500 feet from an area where chickens were raised.
The reproductive habits of this species consists of males and females pairing up for a season of monogamous breeding in October and November, although the pairs generally only stay together for one season. Breeding takes place during the winter months, only one time annually, and most litters are born in late March or early April.The number of young born depends greatly on the condition of the female, with large, rotund females giving birth to as many as six, while less hefty females give birth to three or fewer. The birthing place is typically a small den. Here, the young are reared while the female leaves to gather food, usually only at night or early mornings.
Kit foxes were at one time almost forced to extinction by those who were attempting to poison wolves and coyotes. When these practices ceased, the Kit fox population swelled to the stable levels of the present day. It is still closely monitored by Texas Parks and Wildlife and it is also under the watchful eye of the United States Fish and Wildlife Services.
Michael Price is the director of the San Angelo Nature Center. Contact him at michael.price@sanangelotexas.us.