1. The gray fox lives in deciduous woodlands and eats a variety of foods like cottontail rabbits, voles, mice, birds, and shrews. 2. Young gray foxes begin hunting around 3-4 months with their parents and have a unique ability to climb trees to find food or hide from predators. 3. The gray fox's role in the food chain is as a secondary consumer that preys on small rodents and is preyed upon by larger carnivores.

1. Riparian Zone Retreat Micah Tennant Biology I Period 4

2. Niche of Gray Fox Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) Gray Foxes live in deciduous woodlands, unlike the Red Fox which likes to live in agricultural habitats. The Gray Fox eats many different things. The most common source of food is the eastern cottontail. However the Gray Fox also eats voles, field mice, birds, and shrews that the Fox captures. They mate in late February and March and they produce a litter of 1 to 7 with the average amount in the litter being 3.8. They usually hunt wild rodents such as mice or the occasionally eat food off of trees in the forest and agricultural habitats.

3. Niche Continued… The young Gray Foxes begin hunting around the age of three to four months with their parents. They have a unique ability to climb trees in order to eat the fruit on trees or to hide from predators.

4. Food Chain of Gray Fox The four steps in the food chain start with the producer, wildberries to the primary consumer, the field mouse to the secondary consumer, the gray fox and to the tertiary consumer which is the human hunter. Producer Autotroph Wildberries Primary Consumer Omnivore Field Mouse Secondary Consumer Carnivore Gray Fox Tertiary Consumer Omnivore Hunter

5. Food Web of Gray Fox Herbivore Rabbit, secondary Producer: leaves, primary Omnivore : Gray Fox, secondary consumer Carnivore: lynx, tertiary consumer Carnivore: Bobcat, tertiary consumer Producer: berry Producer: grass, primary Carnivore: frog Herbivore: deer, primary Herbivore: field mouse Primary consumer Carnivore: owl

6. Stream Quality Data & Analysis This represents a healthy stream because of all the Class I organisms. Class I indicates a healthy stream, Class II is a moderate stream, and Class III is an unhealthy stream. If the stream is more healthy then the variety will be greater, thus there will be more organisms for the Gray Fox to eat.

7. Water Testing Data & Analysis In general, nitrate and phoshorous levels should be very low in order for organisms to survive in each habitat. It is best for pH to be around 6.5 to 7.5 for the most variety of live to live there. Also, dissolved oxygen levels need to be high for organisms in water with gills to live. If any of these measurements vary by a high amount, the organisms living there will suffer and eventually die off. The colder the temperature the more oxygen there is and if water is not clear and more turbid, then many things such as predator prey relationships will become strained since it is unclear, the turbidity will clog the animal’s gills. Since gray foxes do not live in water, different levels will not effect them, but there will be indirect effects. If water organisms struggle to survive then the foxes prey such as a mice will have no food and die, leaving the fox with nothing else to eat.

8. Positive and Negative Factors . The current conditions of the three places positively and negatively effect the Gray Fox indirectly. The mine has a more acidic pH (negative effect) and the marsh has high nitrates (negative effect). Pollution by AMD (acid mine drainage) is a major negative effect on the water because it increases the acid and lessens the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. A positive factor is the flowing of the stream that brings more dissolved oxygen into the stream for the organisms.

9. Conclusion I learned that Powdermill Run is considered an excellent stream and there are a variety of organisms effected by the quality such as crayfish and mayflies. I found it interesting that the Gray Fox can climb trees to get away from hunters. I would want to research Global Warming further if I was to research again.

10. Work Cited http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Urocyon_cinereoargenteus.html Fox http://go.grolier.com/ Grolier online encyclopedia http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000025790 I look to the trees and see a Gray Fox/ Dog Fancy Magazine