The ordinary, or red fox - is a predatory mammal, member of the family Canidae, the most common and largest species of the family of foxes. The body length is 60-90 cm, tail - 40-60 cm, weight - 6.10 kg.
The ordinary fox is rather widespread: throughout Europe, North Africa (Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, northern Tunisia), most of Asia (up to northern India, southern China and Indochina), in North America from the Arctic regions to the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico .
The red fox is a common character of folklore around the world. In European countries, it usually represents cunning and deceit, playing quite a variety of roles, from treacherous villains (as in a number of Russian fairy tales) to clever advisers (as in Boris Shergin’s tale "Poyga and a fox"). One of the most famous characters is Fox Renard - a classical character of the medieval poem "Romance of the Fox."
In Mesopotamian mythology, the fox - is a sacred animal. It serves as goddess Ki’s messenger. In Finland, the fox - is a symbol of cunning, not evil.
In Japanese mythology, there are fox-werewolves - kitsunes who can assume human form. They have a wealth of knowledge and possess magical abilities. Later kitsune became popular in literature, movies and video games. Spirits similar to kitsune, also appear in the Chinese and Korean mythology.
Igor Golovastov