As most of us are painfully aware, the grey fox has practically disappeared in many Midwest states..
Illinois has officially closed the season on them.
I’m not a wildlife biologist by any stretch of imagination,, but I have been thinking about something,,, and maybe it’s already been taken into consideration…

In states where the raccoon population has virtually exploded to over 600 percent… grey fox populations have significantly decreased… is it possible, that the raccoon spread parvo and canine distemper to the greys, in numbers to where the grey fox can’t recover due to other contributing factors like coyotes and competition for resources?

Has anyone else thought of this??

Maybe. They compete for many of the same resources also.

Hardly a new theory. It's no coincidence in my area that had major distemper outbreaks in the mid 00s that grey did and skunks practically disappeared here and the raccoon population still hasn't really recovered here.

How much habitat has disappeared in the last 50 years grey fox were common in the industrial parks that outlined the Chicago suburbs? So how much statewide damage has taken place in that time.

We have a really good grey fox population here.and coons to go with em

We now have grey fox in northern Maine.Maybe they moved here

Back in the same time frame there was something going through the coon population. you would find dead coon usually close to water that didn't appear sick. No matted eyes or puffy noses. Looked like just laid down and went to sleep.

i have no doubt it's coyotes in my area, we had red and grey fox everywhere 30 years ago and hardly any coyotes

as the coyotes population went up you could see the fox population dropping instantly

Check out the Trap House podcast from Hoosier Trapping. They just did an interview with their Indiana biologist and I believe distemper was an issue although I don't think coons were mentioned as a direct relationship.

Hard to avoid raccoons if you're in a grey fox area. Most of the greys I catch or well used to catch were mostly in raccoon sets.

Same here

When I was a boy we had lots of red and Grey's no coyotes. Now alot of coyotes a few reds very very few Grey's

Some kind of disease. Haven’t caught one in 30 years but since the season is closed that guarantees me I’ll catch one this year. The part that gets me the grays have been non existent for years but the DNR is only worried about otters and bobcats that are everywhere until this year

In Central IL there is a lot of cover but 50 years ago it was multifloral roses and we had quail and pheasants. I never saw a turkey till I was about 30. We only started hunting deer in the late 60's. So now the rose buses are gone and it' honeysuckle 12' tall where nothing else grows under t. Turkeys and deer, coyotes everywhere. No Pheasants or quail- not many rabbits either for that matter. The woods look different now. We still have some reds but not like when I was a kid.

Nothing has changed much with the habitat here in deep southern Georgia in the past 30 years, but grey fox populations are now almost non-existent. Became very noticeable about 12 years ago. I was catching 150 to 200 greys trapping only a few weeks in January & February. Then it went to rarely seeing a grey fox track.

Wife says I'm the reason...lol

There are a few greys left here & there, but there used to be a pair behind every bush.

My theory: distemper or other disease..... that they cannot recover from.

They never decreased here, the reds decreased for a few years, but are back now in equal numbers to the grays.

For those who speculate the coyotes decimated their grays, remember grays like cover and climb trees....And they fight better than reds.

The coyotes never budged the grays here, just the reds, but now the reds seem to have them figured out.

They have a very small home range.
They take time to repopulate.
While I trapped the same two lines for
50 years of course I saw decline.
When the price spiked everyone
was looking their way.
I caught a dozen that season while a friend
that travels and hunts took 40.
Both of us working full time.
Many have opinions, few are a true gauge.
My 2 cents. I like these topics.

Coyotes never affected the grey fox here either. Some of the highest grey fox pockets I trapped also had a good coyote population.

Yes, the grays and coyotes seem fairly compatible, they are both native to our country and not naturally invasive like the reds.

Coyotes & Grays have been co-existing out west forever.

A Grey Fox was a rare sight in all but the southern couple tiers of counties in Michigan when I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. I saw my first one in my central lower peninsula county in 1972. They were practically unheard of in the U.P. and northern lower. I have lived in the northern lower now for well over 40 years and in that time they went from nonexistent to very common in about 20 years. Then, around the mid 2000's, I took in 3 to either tan or mount livesize in a 2-3 week time..........that folks had walked up on laying dead. One fellow found two like that! I suspected distemper at the time. Locally they became scarce again. It has been several years since I last saw one.