Gray Foxes 



137 



BU - 



HIGH FOLIAR COVER 



- - LOW FOLIAR COVER 





70 - 







60 - 





S . ' 



% ACTIVE LOCATIONS 



o o 



1 1 1 



// 





20 - 



/ 





10 - 



. ' ' " 







1 i i 



1 



SUNRISE DAYLIGHT SUNSET NIGHT 



Fig. 5. Cover-related activity levels (%) of gray foxes radiotracked on 

 the Oak Ridge Reservation, east Tennessee, September 1986-August 1987. 



F 62 alternately used the same resting places. Adult male-female 

 pairs sharing home ranges include M 82 with F 80 (who died before 

 an adequate sample size was obtained for inclusion in home-range 

 analysis) and M 76 with F 74. Adult same-sex fox home ranges overlapped 

 little, whereas adult male-female pairs and adult-subadult home 

 ranges overlapped substantially. Subadult F 63 had an aberrantly 

 large "home range," which may have been explorations instead of a 

 home range at all. 



Gray foxes were active on a greater proportion of locations 

 in evening and night hours than during sunrise and daylight hours. 

 Animals exhibited a lower sunrise activity level during flesh diet than 

 fruit diet season (x 2 = 17.8, P < 0.0005) (Fig. 3). Lower sunrise 

 activity levels were observed during breeding season, and higher daylight 

 activity was observed during pup-rearing season than during other 

 reproductive seasons (x 2 = 29.8, P < 0.0005) (Fig. 4). Lower sunrise 

 and daylight activity levels were observed during months of low foliar 

 cover than during months of high cover (x 2 = 32.3, P < 0.0005) 

 (Fig. 5). 



DISCUSSION 



Gray fox home-range sizes were within the range of those 

 reported in other studies (Richards and Hine 1953, Fuller 1978, Yearsley 

 and Samuel 1980, Nicholson 1982, Hallberg and Trapp 1984, 

 Haroldson and Fritzell 1984, Wooding 1984). Nearly exclusive home 



