I've often been puzzled by seeing grey foxes around every so often. The are the same size as red foxes but have the grey fur that makes them stand out. I've never heard that grey foxes exist in the UK, so are these just different coloured red foxes?
Red foxes have an impressive variation in colour, including red, silver, white, and a variation known as 'cross' (apparently a line of black along the back, and across the shoulders). I would suspect that you are seeing a colour variation, but there's always the possibility that some fool released gray foxes into the wild. The gray fox native to the US is smaller than the red fox native to the US, and has reddish brown sides--so people not paying close attention in the US may not realise that they have seen something other than a red fox, and it's also possible to confuse gray foxes with coyotes! Of course, there are people in the US who confuse coyotes with wolves...a virtual impossibility once one has seen a real wolf.
Kingfisher
Maybe they're just red foxes getting a bit old and haggard looking
Ah yes, a bit grey around the muzzle, so to speak
.
Kingfisher
You are most likely seeing colour variations int he foxes fur, a sort of albine effect, rather than grey foxes. Officially, grey foxes aren't in Britain, but that dosen't mean there can't be a few of them about. However it's unlikely.
You don't think that there are some around that have escaped into the wild? It wouldn't surprise me at all.
I don't think that they are especially valuable as furbearers, so I don't think they would have escaped from a fur farm. Would anyone want to import them into the UK just to have them as pets, or zoo animals (and zoos would be required to report a loss if the zoo wishes to remain accredited)? They would have to have been imported--they could not have just swum across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kingfisher
I can't see anyone keeping a fox as a pet, there seems no reason for them to be imported. I'm sure what you are seeing is a colour variation.
I'm sure you are both right, there doesn't seem any reason for people to be keeping grey foxes in England or anywhere else in the UK. I can't imagine a fox swimming the Atlantic either, but you never know......
