Red Foxes are native to the boreal and western montane portions of North America..............However, many researchers have forever postulated that the Red Foxes found today in much of the Eastern and Midwestern regions of the USA are of European ancestry or at best an admix of European and North American lineages...........Samantha Wisely who works at the Wildlife Ecology Genetics and Molecular Ecology Lab at the U. of Florida, Gainesville(along with colleagues) has concluded in her peer reviewed Journal of Mammalogy paper(93-1;52-65, 2012) that there are no matrilineal descendants of European Red Foxes anywhere in North America.......Indeed, it appears that North American Red Foxes found today in the USA are of North American Ancestry even though the historical record does record the fact that Colonists did release nonnative red foxes into American woodlands............Seems that the native "Reds" migrated down from Canada as forests were cleared and Wolves and Pumas were eliminated as competitors.....The native Red Foxes were able to "best" and out-compete the non native Foxes(Native Gray Foxes who climb trees and prefer forested habitat also largely retreated to more northerly regions where land clearing was not yet extensive)............It is true that in parts of Southern California and western Washington State that Red Foxes are an admix of North American lineages that were translocated from other parts of the Continent(for fur farming)...........The full paper is available for your reading pleasure below,,,,,concluding with the statement that: "native Foxes may be able to competitively exclude nonnative foxes, hybridizing only on the margins of the native range

click here to read: THE ORIGEN OF RECENTLY ESTABLISHED RED FOX POPULATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: TRANSLOCATIONS OR NATURAL RANGE EXPANSION