GRAY FOX Gray foxes range throughout the US, except the northwestern quarter, as well as northern Mexico and Baja California. We have gray foxes in our Carolina mountains, but they are rarer on our coast.
The gray fox is different from other species of fox found in Western NC. A quick way to tell the difference in the gray and red fox is that the gray fox has a black tip on its tail, and the red fox has a white tip on its tail. The gray fox weighs between 7 and 13 pounds. It has a salt-and-pepper coat with buffy underfur, usually a median black stripe down its back and long bushy tail, and a black tip on its tail. There can be other color phases - red, cross (red coat with a darkish strip down the back and across the shoulders), and black.