Mammals · plate 2 of 60
Red Fox
Vulpes vulpes
Has a plan, a backup plan, and a buried egg.
Only 1.9% of people are Red Foxes. (estimated)
If you're a Red Fox
You work alone, think quickly, and keep a backup for everything. Foxes bury surplus food in dozens of small caches and remember where each one is; you have a version of this with money, snacks or exit routes. You are curious to the point of trouble and you move into any neighborhood, from forest to city center, without asking permission.
Red foxes mostly pounce toward the northeast, and one study found that hunting jumps made in that direction succeeded far more often, suggesting the fox lines up its leap with the Earth's magnetic field.
The Red Fox as a spirit animal
You solve problems sideways. Where others push, you look for the gap, and you usually find one. You are independent, resourceful, and better at reading a room than anyone in it suspects. The flaw is that cleverness is a habit, and you use it on friends who would have said yes if asked. You also, for the record, know exactly where every one of your eggs is buried.
Grounded in how the species actually lives; nothing borrowed from anyone's tradition. Why we put it that way.
How to get along with a Red Fox
Do
- Ask directly; a fox respects a straight question far more than a trap.
- Give them room to roam; foxes range widely at night and come back on their own.
- Let them be clever at something; a bored fox invents a project.
Don't
- Don't try to out-scheme them; they have been at this since the bin was invented.
- Don't crowd them; foxes den alone except when raising cubs.
When it goes wrong: A pressured fox disappears, physically or conversationally; leave the door open and something interesting on the step.
The Red Fox in a relationship
You are warier in love than you look. Foxes usually pair for a season and raise the cubs together, the dog fox carrying food to the den, and some pairs reunite year after year. You show affection through provisioning and small clever gifts. Grand declarations make you check where the exits are.
Field notes
Every animal is placed on six personality traits derived from how the species lives. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest animal wins. How the scoring works
- Sociability
- 3
- Boldness
- 5
- Energy
- 7
- Curiosity
- 9
- Devotion
- 6
- Roaming
- 5
- The red fox is the most widely distributed wild land carnivore on Earth, found from the Arctic tundra to North Africa and, since the 1800s, Australia.
- A fox caches extra food in many separate small holes rather than one large one, so a thief can only ever find a fraction of it.
- Foxes have a wide repertoire of calls, including a winter scream that sounds very much like a person in distress.
Red Foxes in literature
- Reynard — Reynard the Fox, traditional (Dutch/French cycle) (1250)
- Mr. Tod — The Tale of Mr. Tod, Beatrix Potter (1912)
- Brer Fox — Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, Joel Chandler Harris (1880)
Characters from public-domain works. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The animals whose profiles sit nearest to the Red Fox's. If you got Red Fox, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other mammals
WolfBrown BearPolar BearLionTigerLeopardCheetahElephantGiraffeHippopotamusGorillaOrangutanSlothKoalaKangarooPlatypusOtterBeaverBadgerRaccoonHedgehogBatCamelDolphinSperm Whale
Among the 60
Brehms Thierleben, Alfred Brehm (1876). Public domain, viacommons.wikimedia.org.All credits
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