Rare silver fox spotted near Fort Collins

It’s not unusual for foxes to peruse the area around Horsetooth Reservoir, but it is less usual for that fox to be black and silver.

On Monday, a Larimer County Natural Resources ranger spotted a silver fox, a black-and-gray variation of a red fox, west of Fort Collins in Larimer County.

A genetic variation gives the red fox its unique color – only about 10 percent of red foxes are silver, according to Web MD. Silver foxes are mostly black in color, but get their name from the gray or silver color speckled throughout their coat, which is caused by unusually high levels of melanin in the genetic makeup.

Red foxes appear in red, silver, black and a cross between red and silver, which is often referred to as a cross fox. Regardless, all variations feature a white-tipped tail, as noted by the National Parks Service.

Senior Ranger Lane Fahrenbruch captured photos of the encounter, as seen below, which were then posted to LCNR’s Instagram. LCNR’s Communications Supervisor Korrie Johnston noted that in her five-year tenure, there have only been two instances of someone getting photographs of an animal of its type.