What is the real story of red and gray foxes in Eastern North America?

Several years ago, I wrote a post called  ”The Tale of Two Foxes in West Virginia.

In it, I used information from the best research at the time to tell what was the supposed story of red (Vulpes vulpes) and gray (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) foxes in in West Virginia. In the post, I claimed that the only reason why there were red foxes in West Virginia is because they were derived from English red foxes that were introduced to the Chesapeake Bay region in the seventeenth century. The reds were able to spread because the forests were cleared into agricultural land, and in parts of Europe, red foxes prefer to live in agricultural land. Gray foxes were always native, but because they are tree-climbers, they don’t feel as secure in more open places.  So their population declined.

Read more.