I wish I would have known about cross and silver fox when I was a teenager. There was either a brother or cousin of old WWII CMH/ S.D. Governor/ AFL Football Commissioner Joe Foss that went to our church. Anyway, this other Foss was a big fox/coyote aerial gunner back when that was legal in South Dakota.

He talked to me about their action a few times in the later 1970s when I think it had been banned or severely curtailed. In the 1960s, this guy shotgunned a lot of red fox out of a plane back when eastern SD was mostly fox country and not much 'yote. It would have been cool to learn how many cross or silver fox they shot. I suspect not many but I'm sure he would have remembered them...

I have caught only a few cross foxes and only seen one silver,

here they are smaller than a red fox

I believe these are an invasive species brought by ranchers to Kodiak. Lot of alien species, including the deer, on Kodiak.

"The red fox is common in most of northern North America. It is found throughout Alaska, except for some of the islands of Southeast Alaska and the western Aleutians and is rare in Prince William Sound. It is native to Kodiak Island but is an introduced animal on many islands in the state as a result of fox farming operations in the early 1900s"

Maybe not, or interbreeds?

The native cascade fox of Washington, Oregon, and I believe northern California are only found in higher elevation areas, generally from above timberline to about 2000 feet below timberline.
These are essentially the same fox that extend northward into Canada and Alaska. They come in all color phases. In Wahington at least 1/3 of them will be of a color other than red.

I believe that the color phase fox found in Idaho are from escaped or released ranch raised fox from many years ago.

Does there seem to be more fox in ID and WA now then there was in the early 1980's? I worked for Pacific Hide and Fur in Spokane 1980-82 and we did not buy many fox from WA or ID.

There are very few non-native red fox in the lowlands of Washington, just a few remIning pockets. There is a good population of cascade fox, but the antis who now run WDFW have put them on the protected list; no rational reason for doing so.

Back in 2013, I was contacted by a college lady that was doing a genetic study on red foxes. She asked for a small piece of hide from each fox ( rear leg/ankle sample) . I had over 200 that year, and lacked the patience to do the extra work.
I remember Phil B telling me he was contacted and participated in the sampling. I don’t recall hearing what that study ever determined.

Originally there were no red fox in the east only gray foxes. When chased by hounds the gray fox will go in a hole so the early English gentlemen imported red fox from England to do the horse chase with a pack of dogs type fox hunts. English red fox do not carry the recessed gene for the silver fox mutation so there are no silver fox in the eastern US. English reds often have little to no white tip on their tails. Within the last 50 years Canadian red fox which carry the silver fox gene have filtered into areas of New England.
The cross fox is the first step in the silver fox color phase recessive gene. They occur occasionally out of red fox matings provided both parents carry the silver fox gene. A cross fox bred to a red fox with silver fox genes will produce 50% red fox pups, 25% cross fox pups and 25% silver fox pups. A cross fox mated to a cross fox produces 50% silver fox pups ,25% cross fox pups and 25% red fox pups. A silver fox mated to a silver fox will produce almost all silver fox pups. A silver fox mated to a red fox with silver recessive genes produces 50% cross foxes and 50 % red fox. A silver fox (or a cross fox) mated to an English red fox produces all red fox pups of which 25% will now carry the silver fox gene.
Actually a silver fox is more accurately called a black fox as it is the melanistic gene.

Good info eric!