Unfortunately this same scenario had a disastrous effect in Australia, a country with no indigenous fox species. When red foxes were imported there for sport, it created an ecological nightmare-contributing to the extinction of twenty native marsupials and threatening the survival of countless other species. In an attempt to eliminate the red fox from the continent, Australian scientists are now working on a genetically-engineered virus that will cause male foxes to become sterile. While a small percentage of foxes die as a result of eagle, coyote, or bobcat predation, man is by far the greatest threat. Humans cause 80-90 percent of fox mortality through hunting, trapping, and automobile accidents.
Many foxes also die from poisoned bait set out for wolves and coyotes by farmers and ranchers.
Most kits don't survive their first year of life, and a fox is indeed lucky to make it to its fourth birthday. Despite an enmity that stretches back thousands of years, the fox has been able to cope with, and even take advantage of, human changes to the environment. Ironically, even while waging an unrelenting war on these animals, over the last three centuries man has unwittingly created a perfect habitat for foxes by converting forest to farmland and killing large predators like wolves and coyotes. In fact, foxes are most comfortable in a mixture of habitats-and the suburban fringe with its blend of cultivated trees and shrubs, remnant agricultural fields, and open space is a place where foxes can thrive and prosper. The backyard fox is a welcome presence for those hungry to hold onto the last symbols of wilderness in a rapidly disappearing natural world.