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Red Foxes Were More Crepuscular in Semi-Urban Than Natural Catalan Landscapes

Wild red fox in Sierra de Cazorla, Spain
Research · Behaviour

A camera-trap study published in 2026 found that red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) changed their daily activity pattern across an urbanization gradient in Catalonia, northeastern Spain. Foxes were more crepuscular at semi-urban locations, while their activity at natural locations was strictly nocturnal.

Researchers sampled 52 camera-trap sites across eight locations in the counties of Osona and Vallès Oriental between 2013 and 2020. The survey produced 2,423 independent detections of wild terrestrial mesocarnivores. Red foxes were the most frequently recorded species, accounting for 64.2% of these detections, and were detected at all eight locations.

Activity shifted more clearly than overall abundance

Overall relative abundance of the mesocarnivore community tended to be lower at more urbanized locations, but this effect was not statistically significant. The activity analysis nevertheless showed species-specific changes across the urbanization gradient: red foxes and common genets (Genetta genetta) shifted towards more crepuscular activity in semi-urban landscapes, whereas European badgers (Meles meles) remained nocturnal in both settings.

Activity curves for common genet, European badger and red fox in natural and semi-urban Catalan landscapes
Activity patterns of common genet, European badger and red fox in natural and semi-urban landscapes. Grey shading shows overlap between the two activity curves. Figure 3 from Fernandez-Arrieta et al. (2026), Mammalian Biology, CC BY 4.0.

Species responded differently to urbanization

The authors conclude that mesocarnivore responses to urbanization cannot be reduced to a single pattern. For red foxes, behavioural flexibility in the timing of activity was more evident than a clear change in relative abundance. European rabbits were much more abundant at the semi-urban locations and are themselves most active around dawn and dusk, so the authors suggest that prey availability may have contributed to the foxes’ stronger crepuscular pattern; this explanation was not tested directly.

Sources and image credit

  1. Fernandez-Arrieta, N., Vilella, M., Rota, M., Serratosa, E., Real, J., & Sayol, F. (2026). Differences in relative abundance and activity patterns of Mediterranean mesocarnivores across natural and semi-urban landscapes. Mammalian Biology, 106, 597–607. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-026-00572-9Primary open-access research article published 5 March 2026. Camera traps at 52 sites across eight locations in Catalonia produced 2,423 independent wild-mesocarnivore detections; red foxes accounted for 64.22% and occurred at all eight locations. Foxes were more crepuscular in semi-urban locations but strictly nocturnal in natural locations, while the general tendency towards lower mesocarnivore relative abundance in more urbanized areas was not statistically significant.

Image: Ramón Portellano — wild red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park, Spain, photographed 18 March 2017; Wikimedia Commons / Flickr; cropped to 16:9; representative Spanish species image, not a fox from the Catalonia study · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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