Red foxes have a wide range of food sources in Maine, although availability can vary by season.
Foxes are omnivorous, meaning they eat anything plant or animal. They eat birds and the eggs of ground-nesters, insects, snakes, dead animals, berries, corn, seeds, apples, nuts and small mammals, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Some of the small mammals they eat include mice, voles, rats and snowshoe hares.
The healthy looking red fox in this video courtesy of Camp Oot Oot, a private wildlife research facility in Mount Chase, successfully hunted a hare it is presumably taking to its den or some other private place to dine on it.
Foxes also are opportunists. You know the saying “The fox is in the henhouse?” It’s a reality for farmers and homesteaders who have chickens and other fowl unless precautions are taken to keep them out.
Foxes are small enough to get through the small door that allows chickens to return to a coop and can take out several birds in one visit and eat their eggs if they get in undetected.