Red Fox (vulpes vulpes)  /   Mike Roberts photo

The genesis of the red fox in North America has long been a rich subject for discussion. DNA studies have furnished answers, revealed genetically distinct types, and led to informed theories about how distinctive alterations to those lines developed as the result of separation and isolation during the Ice Ages.

Liz Kierepka―Senior Research Biologist and Assistant Research Professor at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina State University―describes herself as “a wildlife geneticist with broad interests across ecology and evolution.” Dr. Kierepka was interviewed by Laura Oleniacz for The Abstract, a publication of North Carolina State University. Here’s what Foxhunting Life learned.