Additional Fox Records for Kansas

Abstract

The paucity of fox records for Western Kansas indicates that their geographical distribution in the state is poorly known. Three records have recently been added to the vertebrate collection of the Museum of the High Plains, Division of Biological Sciences, Fort Hays Kansas State College. are a Red Fox, Vulpes fulva fulva (Desmarest), skull, No. 827; a male Swift Fox, Vulpes velox velox (Say), skin and skull, No. 1262; and a male Gray Fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus ocythous (Bangs), skin and skull, No. 1817. A Red Fox was found dead on 4 March 1963 in Ellis County, 1/2 mile south, 1 mile east of Hays. During the winter of 1962-1963 sight records of this species along Big Creek near Hays were reported to us. Other records of the Red Fox in Western Kansas are reported by Anderson and Nelson (1958). are of a male from 5 miles south, 7 miles west of Friend, Finney County obtained 27 March 1955, and of a female obtained 18 April 1956 from 7 miles north of Fowler, Meade County. Their report states that, These records . . . indicate that the species may occur throughout Our specimen and the sightings indicate that the Red Fox may be found in western Kansas where its proper habitat is present. A captive male Swift Fox was brought to us on 4 June 1963. The animal was collected by Mr. Leon Schumacher of Hays at the west edge of Ulysses in Grant County. He recalled that the fox was captured near the end of July or the first of August, 1962. To our knowledge this is the only preserved Swift Fox from Kansas since 1955, when a male from 4 miles north of St. John, Stafford County, a female from 8 miles north of Elkhart, Morton County (Anderson and Nelson, 1958), and a male from 31/2 miles northeast of Quinter, Gove County (Martin and Sternberg, 1955) were recorded. The Swift Fox was at one time considered to be extinct in Kansas (Baker, 1889; Bunker, 1940; Cockrum, 1952), but the above records indicate the species still to be present in western Kansas. On 19 November 1963 a male Gray Fox was captured at Lincoln, Lincoln County by Mr. Leon Hopkins in a garage. He reported that the