Hoary fox

Gestation lasts 56 days, litters average 3.5 young with 1.6 litters per year, and sexual maturity comes at 275 days. The IUCN Red List classifies the hoary fox as Near Threatened, which is not a threatened category, and its lifespan is given as 12.6 years.

Weight

4.23 kg – 5.44 kgsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

12.6 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Carnivoresrc for Diet

Main food

arthropodssrc for Main food

Habitat

Not recorded

Gestation

55.7 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

3.55src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

9.03 monthssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1.63src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

By day (diurnal)src for Active

Lifestyle

Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle

Conservation status

Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The hoary fox is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderCarnivora
5. familyCanidae
6. genusLycalopex
7. SpeciesLycalopex vetulus (Lund, 1842)

Synonyms Canis vetulus, Dusicyon vetulus, Pseudalopex vetulus

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

LC, Least Concern

Culpeo

Lycalopex culpaeus

Canidae

LC, Least Concern

Pampas fox

Lycalopex gymnocercus

Canidae

EN, Endangered

Darwin's fox

Lycalopex fulvipes

Canidae

LC, Least Concern

South American gray fox

Lycalopex griseus

Canidae

NT, Near Threatened

Sechuran fox

Lycalopex sechurae

Canidae

CompareHoary fox vs CulpeoHoary fox vs Pampas foxHoary fox vs Darwin's foxHoary fox vs South American gray fox

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{hoary_fox_2026,
  title = {Hoary fox (Lycalopex vetulus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/hoary-fox},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}