Pups reach young adulthood by autumn. Dominant females inherit the territory of their parents, while males depart for new, unclaimed territory. Intraspecific competition is dealt with through the social hierarchy, with the dominant, or alpha, female eating first. The dominant female of each territory also has exclusive breeding rights. Submissive females must leave and establish their own territory in order to breed.
Courtship is an important ritual for culpeo foxes.
It takes place during the winter months. Only the dominant female mates, and not before a lengthy ritual involving mock fighting and bipedal wrestling where each fox's forelimbs rest on the other's shoulders. Copulation may take up to half an hour, during which time the foxes remain hidden by foliage. On the western side of the Andes mountains they are found between 1000m and 4500m in elevation, but they have never been detected in the wetter lowland forests of the eastern slopes. Across much of their range culpeo foxes avoid denser forests for the open grasslands that sustain large populations of mice and hares.