Swedes prefer to hunt foxes with dogs, for example dachshunds or dogging dogs such as Hamiltonstövare. Still hunting is also popular and some hunters are very good at calling.

The Red Fox is most commonly a rusty red, with white underbelly, black ear tips and legs, and a bushy tail with a distinctive white tip. The "red" tone can vary from crimson to golden, and in fact can be brindled or agouti, with bands of red, brown, black and white on each individual hair when seen close up.

In the wild, two other color phases are also seen. The first is silver or black, comprising 10% of the wild population and most of the farmed. Approximately 30% of wild individuals have additional black patterning, which usually manifests as a stripe across the shoulders and down the center of the back. This pattern forms a "cross" over the shoulders, hence the term "cross fox". "Domesticated" or farmed stock may be almost any color, including spotted, or "marbled", varieties.

The fox's eyes are gold to yellow and have distinctive vertically slit pupils, similar to those of a feline. They can see just as well too, and combined with their extreme agility for a canid the Red Fox has been referred to as "the cat-like canid". Its long bushy tail with distinctive white tip provides balance for acrobatic leaps and bounds. Its strong legs allow it to reach speeds of 45 miles per hour. That amazing speed makes it easy for them to catch their prey or to outrun their predators. Their main prey is mouses, but they can also take hares and roe deer. Roe deer calfs in June and weak roe deers during hard winters.

The Red Fox may reach an adult weight of 2.7-6.8 kg (6-15 lb), but this varies from region to region; European individuals being larger, on average, than those in North America.

During the autumn and winter, the Red Fox will grow more fur. This so-called 'winter fur' keeps the animal warm in the colder environment. The fox sheds this fur at the onset of spring, reverting back to the short fur for the duration of the summer.

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