A comparison of gray fox ecology between residential and undeveloped rural landscapes

I compared the ecology of gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) between a rural residential area and an undeveloped area of similar natural habitat. Seat collected in the residential area contained higher frequencies of mammal remains (P = 0.02) and lower frequencies of plant remains (P < 0.001) than seat collected in the undeveloped area. Anthropogenic food exceeded 10% of volume of seats in the residential area. In the residential area, nighttime activity correlated negatively with percent of woodland cleared (P = 0.039) and density of residences (P = 0.003). Body weight was greater (P = 0,059) in the residential area. Gray foxes used housing developments less than expected during daytime (P < 0.001), but more than expected during nighttime (P < 0.001). Complexity of home range structure was greater in the residential area (P = 0.087). Home range use was less uniform in the residential area, based on spatial frequency distributions of locations (P < 0.001) and number of locations required for home range size estimates to stabilize (P = 0.004). Foxes avoided high-density residential subdivisions (>125 residences/km(2)).