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50 free Fox trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
46 free Fox trivia questions with answers. Foxes live on every continent but one, and this quiz follows them everywhere. It covers the animals themselves: what a female is called, why the fennec's ears are so big, how the Arctic fox changes coat, how a red fox lines up its pounce with the Earth's magnetic field, and which fox eats almost nothing but termites. It also covers the Russian experiment that bred tame, floppy-eared foxes in a few decades. The second half is the fox in culture: the nine-tailed kitsune of Japan, Reynard and the word 'renard', Disney's fox Robin Hood, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Fox and the Hound, fox hunting and Oscar Wilde's famous jibe, and even why a web browser and a TV network carry the name. Easy questions suit kids and animal lovers; the hard ones will test a zoologist. Every answer is verified against Wikipedia's articles on the species and works involved, and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is a female fox called?
A vixen
Males are dogs, tods or reynards; the young are cubs, pups or kits.
Q 02Which of these is a real collective noun for a group of foxes?
A skulk
'Leash' and 'earth' are also used; foxes are actually mostly solitary hunters.
Q 03On which continent do foxes NOT live?
Antarctica
Australia only has foxes because red foxes were introduced there; they now number in the millions.
Q 04Which fox is the most common and widespread species?
Red fox
It has about 47 recognised subspecies and is the most widely distributed member of the whole order Carnivora.
Q 05How many species belong to the 'true fox' genus Vulpes?
Twelve
Gray foxes, bat-eared foxes and South American 'foxes' sit in other genera.
Q 06What is the fox's bushy tail traditionally called?
A brush
The word 'fox' itself comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'thick-haired, tail'.
Q 07Unlike most members of the dog family, foxes have claws that are what?
Partly retractable
It is one of several cat-like traits; gray foxes use hooked claws to climb trees.
Q 08How long is a vixen's pregnancy?
About 52 days
Litter sizes vary widely; the Arctic fox can have up to eleven kits, and in good lemming years even more.
Q 09Which is the smallest of all canid species?
Fennec fox
Its huge ears shed heat and pick up prey moving underground; it can live 14 years in captivity.
Q 10The big-eared desert fox of the Sahara is the national animal of which country?
Algeria
The country's football team is nicknamed Les Fennecs.
Q 11What colour does the Arctic fox's 'white morph' coat turn in summer?
Brown
About 90 percent of the global population is the white morph; the winter coat is twice the length of the summer one.
Q 12How many pups can an Arctic fox litter, the largest in the order Carnivora, reach?
25
Numbers track the lemming boom-and-bust cycle; in lean years the foxes may not breed at all.
Q 13Arctic foxes can hear which animal burrowing under 4-5 inches of snow?
Lemmings
They can also smell frozen lemmings deep under snow and detect a seal lair beneath it.
Q 14Where is the Arctic fox's rare 'blue morph' most common?
Q 21How many distinct sounds have researchers identified in adult red foxes?
12
Kits add eight of their own; the calls span five octaves and blend into one another.
Q 22The red fox's tail gland is said to smell of which flower?
Violets
The oval 'supracaudal' gland sits under a black spot at the base of the tail.
Q 23Because of the damage introduced red foxes do in Australia, the animal appears on which notorious list?
100 worst invasive species
A 2012 estimate put more than 7.2 million red foxes across the mainland, preying on native marsupials.
Iceland
There it makes up 65-70 percent of foxes, against under 10 percent worldwide.
Q 15Which North American fox can climb straight up branchless tree trunks?
Gray fox
Its strong hooked claws let it escape coyotes and dogs; its genus is the most ancient living canid line.
Q 16The bat-eared fox of Africa has a diet unique among canids. What does it mainly eat?
Insects
Harvester termites make up most of it and even supply its water; it never drinks from open water.
Q 17Which fox is the smallest of the four Vulpes species in North America?
Kit fox
The endangered San Joaquin kit fox has adapted to urban life in California's Central Valley.
Q 18The swift fox was wiped out in which country by 1938 before being reintroduced from 1983?
Canada
Small populations are now established in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Q 19The Fuegian dog, an extinct domesticated animal of Tierra del Fuego, was bred from which fox?
Culpeo
The Selk'nam people domesticated the South American culpeo; the breed died out around 1900.
Q 20A red fox hunting mice under snow appears to align its leap with what?
Earth's magnetic field
It pinpoints prey by sound, then sails high in the air, steering with its tail.
Q 24Roughly how many red foxes did 2012 estimates count in Australia?
7.2 million
Their range covers most of the continental mainland.
Q 25How many different urination postures do red foxes use to place scent marks precisely?
12
Scent marking is how foxes advertise territory; they can also locate a sound to within one degree.
Q 26Which is the only fox species native to Western Europe?
Red fox
The Arctic fox reaches northern Scandinavia and the corsac European Russia, but neither is Western European.
Q 27Dmitry Belyayev's famous fox-domestication experiment, begun in 1959, took place in which Russian city?
Novosibirsk
By the tenth generation tame silver foxes had floppy ears and piebald coats, traits seen in dogs.
Q 28In Belyayev's experiment, which dog-like trait first appeared in a tame fox cub in the tenth generation?
Floppy ears
Piebald patches and a white star on the forehead showed up in the same generation.
Q 29In Japanese folklore, kitsune are messengers of which Shinto deity?
Inari
Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto is full of fox statues, and kitsune udon is named for the fried tofu the foxes supposedly love.
Q 30According to Japanese folktales, a kitsune grows an extra tail after living how long?
100 years
Nine tails marks the oldest and most powerful; the idea was borrowed from Chinese classics.