vulpine

\VUL-pine\

adjective

1 : of, relating to, or resembling a fox

2 : foxy, crafty

So, I've done some searching for the reasons behind considering a fox as crafty or cunning. This is what I have collected:

1) Foxes often hunt with a small family as opposed to a large pack (in fox-speak a "skulk"),

2) They are particularly wary of humans who often hunt the animals, shortening their life expectancy from ten to two or three years,

3) A female fox is called a "vixen" (in human speak "an ill-tempered or quarrelsome woman")

4) They are considered "opportunistic" feeders, and hunt mostly live rodents, BUT

5) Red foxes are often a pest to farmers as they enjoy preying on weak or sick livestock.

I feel like this last fact may be responsible for the cunningness present in a VULPINOUS nature. But I'm also curious about the whole vixen thing. The dictionary says "ill-tempered" and "quarrelsome," but I think a vixen could definitely connote cunning and manipulative. It's all coming together.

In other fox news (sorry...): How come foxes never made it onto over-sized sweatshirts the way wolves did in the late 1980's? For more info, check out this most likely facetious wikipedia page for Three Wolf Moon.