The Real Life relationship between foxes and wolves has also inspired this trope. The two are competitive towards each other for territory and on rare occasions use the other as a food source.
The general view in human cultures is that foxes (small, opportunistic mesopredators) are cunning, while wolves (bigger pack-hunting apex predators that can pose a threat to humans) are savage. When foxes and wolves oppose each other, the former will act as a Trickster Archetype, running circles around the brutish wolf.
While both foxes and wolves have historically been hated by farmers, foxes are still much less feared compared to wolves — and as such, foxes are very often (but not always) the more sympathetic side of this dynamic. Wolves can then fill the role of their Unpleasant Animal Counterpart. On the other hand, some stories may have a Noble Wolf fighting against a Foul Fox making Foxes the Unpleasant Animal Counterpart.
When foxes and wolves are on the same side, instead of opponents, they're still crafty and strong, respectively, but now working together as Brains and Brawn.
The most common species used for this dynamic are the red fox and the grey wolf, as they're the most widespread, famous, and also biggest foxes and wolves, respectively. Since red foxes are mostly orangish-to-reddish, and grey wolves can be portrayed as bluish-gray, a Blue/Orange Contrast is often employed as well.
Sometimes werewolves will be contrasted against Kitsune and the like as a fantastical version of this, both being supernatural versions of their respective animals that can change between human and animal forms.
No Real Life Examples, Please! This is a trope that imposes fictional characterization on non-sapient animals.
Subtrope of Animal Jingoism. Compare Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast for another contrast involving fantastical foxes and canines.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Future Card Buddyfight: Episode 54, "Wolf versus Fox!! A Battle of Instinct!", pits the rugged Rouga (aka Wolf) and his lupine monster Cerberus against the sly Jin and his vulpine monster Yamigitsune. Rouga even lampshades their mutual canid theme.
- GARO: Crimson Moon: The protagonist, Raikou, is the current heir to the Garo Armor, which features a wolf motif, and fights as a samurai, while also being known as noble yet impulsive and naive. Abe no Seimei (who, in Japanese folklore, is associated with foxes, where his mother was said to be a kitsune) or Seimei for short, is sent by the tripartite fox goddess that acts as Raikou's handler, who has a playful and easygoing nature while also being prone to lying, using her Onmyōdō, alchemy, and magic as support for Raikou to slay Horrors.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005): Link and Ghanti are co-protagonists, partnering up repeatedly in Enemy Mine situations. Link is an awkward rookie adventurer who does his best to be an Ideal Hero, while Ghanti is a cheerful bandit girl who wants the Triforce and its cosmic power. Ghanti's Dark World form is a cute talking fox, while Link's turns out to be a demon wolf.
Comic Books
- The Bad Guys: Mr. Wolf leads his crew of criminals on a rocky road to redemption. His Distaff Counterpart in the form of Agent Fox has already led her team to the end of that journey once we meet them.
- De Cape et de Crocs: Don Lope de Villalobos y Sangrin (a Spanish wolf) and Armand Raynal de Maupertuis (a French fox) have a Red Oni, Blue Oni relationship, where the hot-headed don Lope is the better swordsman and Armand the better schemer.
Fan Works
- Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Chloe Cerise and her bully Sara Diktyalis have the wolf and fox as their respective motifs. Chloe is seen as the lone wolf (she wears a cloak that has the powers of a wolf demon and deity and heavily inspired by the protagonists of Wolfwalkers) who is hated by her Mindless Sheep classmates who follow Sara as the fox (a chat reveals her screen name is "Vulpix Princess") which represents her crafty nature and the illusion of her being a proud bitch when she's a broken girl in an abusive home. This is later flipped on its head as Chloe shows the benevolent traits of a wolf (as a protector and also very intelligent) while Sara ironically shows that she's the true Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and an opportunistic bitch who takes advantage of the classmates' ires to doom themselves.
Film — Animated
- The 3 Little Pigs: The Movie: The two main antagonists of this story are Big Boss the Wolf and Rublad the Fox. Big Boss is a vicious predator that wants to serve the pigs as dinner at "The Inn Of The Gentle Wolf", and Rublad is more of a trickster that builds an invention that can turn any animal into canned meat.
- The Adventures of Brer Rabbit: Both Br'er Fox and Br'er Wolf are the main antagonists of the film, with both of them teaming up to catch Br'er Rabbit at the end of the film. Br'er Wolf is a Dumb Muscle that is slightly more friendly, while Br'er Fox is a Too Clever by Half schemer that is regularly rude to others and a bit cocky.
- The Bad Guys: Mr. Wolf is the leader of a criminal gang while his counterpart and sorta-love-interest, Diane Foxington, is a charming governor who secretly has a past career of being a solo criminal.
- The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales: The fox is a protégé of a much bigger and nastier wolf. The two initially plan to have the fox raise some chicks until they're ripe to eat, but the fox grows attached to his new kids while the wolf just wants to eat them.
- In Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox has a phobia of wolves. Near the end, he encounters a wolf, and the two share a moment of solidarity while Mr. Fox realizes that the wolf is the true wild animal that he will never truly be.
- In Disney's Robin Hood (1973), the characters of Reynard the Fox have been combined with the Robin Hood mythos. Robin Hood is a fox and a Guile Hero while his archnemesis the Sheriff of Nottingham is a dumb wolf.
- Wolf Children: Ame, the half-wolf, half-human hybrid, is portrayed as naive compared to the fox who is the guardian of the forest, who serves as his mentor. After the fox dies, Ame takes over as guardian of the forest.
Film — Live-Action
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Fox appears to work with Maugrim and the wolves of the White Witch's Secret Police, though he brushes off Mr. Beaver's accusation of being a traitor by noting an "unfortunate family resemblance" to the wolves. He turns out to be a double agent for Aslan, covering for the Pevensies and Beavers when interrogated and Taken for Granite when caught.
Literature
- The Eminence in Shadow: Yukime is an intelligent fox-therianthrope whose Arch-Enemy is Gettan, a wolf therianthrope known for his strength. The two were initially engaged to represent the union between the Spirit Fox's intelligence and the Great Wolf's strength, until the destruction of their village caused Gettan to fall into the deep end.
- "Kolobok": The story includes a wolf amongst many of the animals trying to catch the titular food, failing due to getting distracted by its singing. This is contrasted by the fox, who manages to finally eat the kolobok by tricking it into coming closer.
- This concept dates back to the 12th century, with the Trope Maker being the tricky outlaw Reynard the Fox and his Arch-Enemy, the greedy and corrupt Isengrim the Wolf.
- Uncle Remus, His Songs And His Sayings: Both Br'er Fox and Br'er Wolf are frequent antagonists of Br'er Rabbit, though Br'er Fox focuses more on being clever while Br'er Wolf focuses more on being vicious.
- "The Wolf and the Fox": The story focuses on a vicious wolf that forces a fox to work for him, though the fox later escapes by tricking the wolf into engaging in gluttony, which gets the wolf killed by the farmer.
Live-Action TV
- Don't Eat the Neighbours has Fox and Wolf as a Big Bad Duumvirate. Fox is the smarter and more sophisticated of the two, coming up with schemes to capture the rabbits, while Wolf attempts to carry out those schemes, on top of tending to his two children and trying to prove himself as a successful predator. Fox will also take advantage of Wolf at certain times.
- Teen Wolf: Werewolves and Kitsune, like their animal counterparts, famously harbor a deep hostility toward each other. Scott and Kira defy this notion by becoming a romantic couple.
Video Games
- Fire Emblem Fates features two types of beast units, one based on the Kitsune that can transform into foxes and playable in Birthright, the other based on Werewolves available in Conquest. In Revelation, both are playable and the representative characters have a common support.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Foxy the Pirate is one of the four original animatronic characters from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, who appears in all of the early games. By the time of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Roxanne Wolf, aka "Roxy", appears to be the Glamrock animatronics equivalent of Foxy at the Mega Pizzaplex, though some materials around the Pizzaplex indicate that Foxy still exists in some capacity. She is a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist to Foxy in that while Foxy tends to hide more than the other animatronics and wears an eyepatch, Roxy is an Attention Whore who has enhanced vision.
- Metal Gear Solid: The Big Bad Liquid is the commander of FOXHOUND, with Sniper Wolf as his Aloof Ally. While Wolf is an Anti-Villain who keeps a pack of wolfdogs as her companions and is willing to accept loss with grace, Liquid is all but a Card-Carrying Villain who proudly has fox hunting as a hobby and, Blood Knight persona aside, is enraged at the idea of an opponent or weapon being too much for him to handle.
- Ōkami has the wolf goddess Amaterasu and her Evil Counterpart, a demonic kitsune named Ninetails. Where Amaterasu is a benevolent Noble Wolf trying to earn back her godhood, Ninetails is a Foul Fox who murders and impersonates the priestess Rao to deceive Amaterasu into regaining his full power. The fox demon even has his own version of Amaterasu's Celestial Brush techniques.
- Royalty Free-For-All would reveal Reynard and Ysengrim as playable fighters under the titles of "The Quick Brown Fox" and "The Big Bad Wolf".
- Star Fox has the heroic Fox McCloud and the villainous Wolf O'Donnel, leaders of Star Fox and Star Wolf, respectively. Both are mercenary fighter pilots, but they have very different standards regarding whom they are willing to work for.
Webcomics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: The figures of Ysengrin and Renard/Reynardine are both major characters in the story, and have contrasting roles, as is expected of their mythos. Ysengrin the wolf at first seems to be an antagonistic figure, but after Antimony begins her training to become the medium between Gunnerkrigg Court and Gilette Wood, acts as Antimony's confidant and a sort of emotional anchor and father figure for the 'fire-headed girl'. He also has a hidden streak of repressed anger, and is being manipulated by Coyote, who is capable of taking away his memories. Reynardine the fox's situation is a bit more complicated. He and Annie have an antagonistic relationship at first, with him seemingly trying to possess Antimony only to be stuck inside a plush wolf she owns, becoming magically bound to her will; unlike Ysengrin's situation, he's well aware of Antimony being able to command him, and though he resents it at first, the relationship between him and Annie eventually evolves into a sibling-like dynamic. Also unlike Ysengrin, Reynardine is able to feel regret for his actions, and spends basically every day agonizing over the deaths he's caused.
Western Animation
- Arcane: Discussed by Ambessa, the Action Girl Evil Matriarch mother of Mel Medarda, one of Piltover's councilors. Ambessa compares the rest of Medardas to wolves, owing to their military lineage, and unfavorably contrasts herself with Mel as a fox who is unwilling to face the harsh realities of war, and uses what cunning she has to avoid conflict. Ambessa herself, however, believes that one must be both the wolf and the fox to succeed, and her disappointment with Mel is not that she relies on her wits, but she avoids pure aggression and dominance as a tool.
- Dora the Explorer: The episode "Dora Saves The Three Little Pigs" makes Swiper The Fox and The Big Bad Wolf foils in terms of antagonists. Swiper is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold that is the main antagonist of the show that sides with Dora and Boots this episode to help return the bricks to the Three Little Pigs, even stating that he loves pigs. The Big Bad Wolf, the one-off villain for the episode, wants to hurt the Three Little Pigs For the Evulz.