Fox

Foxes are nocturnal passive mobs that spawn commonly in taiga and snowy taiga biomes.

Spawning

Foxes will spawn in taiga and snowy taiga biomes and sometimes in taiga villages, in groups of 1–3. When spawned in a snowy biome, foxes will be white in color. They will spawn more commonly at night time, sleeping in the forests. There is a ¹⁄₆ probability of the fox spawning as a baby.

A fox with an emerald in its mouth.

Items in mouth

These items have a 8.5% chance to be automatically in a fox's mouth when they spawn:

• Egg
• Emerald
• Feather
• Leather
• Rabbit Hide
• Rabbit's Foot
• Wheat
• Cooked Porkchop

Behavior and appearance

They move quickly, about the same speed as ocelots, and will flee from any nearby players and wolves.

Attacking

Foxes will attack chickens and rabbits, crouching down for about 2 seconds, then jump into the air 2-3.5 blocks up over fences and walls when necessary. Foxes will also attack cod, salmon and baby turtles on land but not tropical fish or pufferfish.

Red foxes prefer to attack chickens, rabbits, and baby turtles, all of which are on land, over cod and salmon; conversely, arctic foxes prefer to attack cod and salmon over land creatures. Foxes that trust a player will defend them against hostile mobs should the player be harmed.

A red fox leaping at a chicken.

File:Red fox sleep.png

A red fox sleeping during the day.

Sleeping

An arctic fox sleeping.

During the day, foxes will attempt to find a space with a block above it and begin to sleep, while the fox is sleeping it will slowly move its head up and down and will not move. They will wake up and quickly flee if approached by a player. However, foxes will not move or run away if the player approaches while sneaking.

Sitting

A sitting red fox.

A fox will also randomly sit down every so often, usually during the day if the fox cannot find a “shaded” area to sleep.​

Holding items

If any item is on the ground near a fox, it will travel to it and pick it up and it will appear in the foxes' mouth. This behavior is not limited to food and animal products. 

Feeding

A fox will eventually eat any food item it picks up (besides cake, this is because cake has to be placed down to be eaten, this denies foxes can pick it up and eat it.) and the fox is unaffected by the ill effects of food items such as spider eyes. If a fox sees any food item, the fox will run towards it and pick it up. If there is a stage 3 or 4 sweet berry bush within a 16 block radius of a fox, it will sprint towards it, harvest it, and eat the berries, dropping the item it was holding.

Night life

During the night foxes will head to villages or go out to hunt. The practice of foxes going to villages is based on foxes raiding older towns for food in the real world. Foxes don't currently have the ability to steal from villages, except crops dropped from villagers, but villagers pick it their crops too quickly for foxes to pick up, so they walk away. You could keep an eye out for smaller foxes hidden around the houses, as they are easy to spot locked in houses and fallen in the wells.

File:Sitting fox.png

Breeding

When sweet berries are used on two foxes, the foxes will breed, producing a baby fox. After the player takes the baby fox with lead away from their parents, it will "trust" the player, and never run away from them.

Enemies

Wolves are aggressive towards foxes when within 18 blocks of them, (though usually foxes can get away because of their speed).Polar bears will also try to attack foxes. They will sneak towards them and will attack them, if they are close enough. Baby polar bears, normally passive, will also attempt to attack a fox within 16 blocks.

Drops

• Upon death, adult foxes drop 1–2 experience orbs when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

• Like other baby animals, killing a baby fox yields no experience.

• Foxes will always drop any items they pick up and drop items they spawn with naturally with a chance of 8.5%.

• If a fox is killed while holding a totem of undying this item will not drop, but be consumed to revive the fox.

Data values

Foxes have entity data associated with them that contains various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is fox.

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
  • Additional fields for mobs that can breed see Template:Nbt inherit/breedable/template
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
  • [Byte] Crouching: 1 or 0 (true/false) – Whether the fox is crouching.
  • [Byte] Sitting: 1 or 0 (true/false) – Whether the fox is sitting.
  • [Byte] Sleeping: 1 or 0 (true/false) – Whether the fox is sleeping.
  • [NBT List / JSON Array] Trusted: A list of players that the fox trusts. For a list with more than 2 elements, only the first and the last are considered.
    • [Int Array]: The UUID of each trusted player, stored as four ints.
  • [String] Type: ID of the fox's type.

Fox Type

[edit]

History

September 26, 2018							Foxes are announced to be part of the biome vote at MINECON Earth 2018. {"type": "", "version": "September 26, 2018", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Foxes are announced to be part of the biome vote at (link to MINECON Earth 2018 article, displayed as MINECON Earth 2018)."}
September 29, 2018							Foxes are showcased at MINECON Earth 2018. {"type": "", "version": "September 29, 2018", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Foxes are showcased at (link to MINECON Earth 2018 article, displayed as MINECON Earth 2018)."}
September 29, 2018							Taiga wins the biome vote, meaning foxes will be added to the game. {"type": "", "version": "September 29, 2018", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Taiga wins the biome vote, meaning foxes will be added to the game."}
Upcoming Java Edition
1.14							Added foxes. {"type": "java upcoming", "version": "1.14", "exp": "", "snap": "", "content": "Added foxes."}

Issues

Issues relating to "Fox" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Although foxes appear to hold items in their mouth, they are actually holding items in their main hand.
• Foxes are one of the only mobs that can sleep in Minecraft.
  • The other mobs include pandas,‌​ cats,‌​ and villagers​.
• Foxes are the only overworld land mob that can jump more than 1 block without status effects.
  • Dolphins can jump over 1 block high as well, but they don't reside at land.
• Foxes can become temporarily stuck in snow. During their "pounce" animation, if a fox collides with a snow layer, they will remain face-down and emit particles, returning to normal shortly after.
• They can pick and hold anything a player can, even modded items.
• Foxes are completely unaffected by sweet berry bushes and will take no damage while moving in them.