Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Jaguar Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
The Cape Fox is very similar in appearance to a young black backed jackal. They are small, being around 30-36cm high at the shoulder, and are around 90-97cm in length (including a 25-34cm tail). Cape Foxes typically weigh between 2.5 and 4Kg. They have a silvery-grey body with tawny brown legs and head. The face and underside is a tawny-cream colour and there is a black muzzle stripe. The tail has a dark tip.
Cape Foxes are usually nocturnal, and are mainly seen alone. They do form pairs but the male and female forage separately so they are seldom seen together. Cape Foxes are good diggers and either dig their own burrows or they take over a vacant burrow dug by another species such as the aardvark, or simply use a sheltered crevice among rocks. Cape Foxes are territorial and mark their territory with a strong smelling secretion. Their home ranges have been recorded as being between 1 and 4.6 Km2 in the Free State area of South Africa.
Cape Foxes feed on mice, young hares and rabbits, lizards, small snakes, insects and other invertebrates, birds, as well as eggs and wild fruits. They hunt their own food but do sometimes scavenge, and on rare occasions have been reported to take very young lambs.
In some areas, Cape Foxes breed seasonally, mainly in Spring and early summer, but in other areas they breed all year round. After a gestation period of around 52 days, between one and five young are born in a den. After around 16 weeks the cubs start to forage for food on their own, but they remain with their mother until they are around 5 months old.
The Cape Fox is found in a variety of habitats including grasslands, scattered thickets, semi-desert scrub, heathland (Fynbos) in South Western South Africa, and agricultural areas.
Cape Foxes are found throughout most of Namibia, with the exception of the North East and Caprivi areas. Outside of Namibia, Cape Foxes are found in large parts of Botswana and South Africa.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
