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Background- Writing a speculative evolution about the nine-tailed fox and had made twenty species that range in size from cat-sized species from Indonesia to wolf-sized ones in the Carpathian mountains, from all over the globe and live in different habitats from temperate and tropical forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains and even in urban areas for the kitsune.

Question- How can these foxes avoid being species by humans in the same way as cryptids do?

Some do shape-shift in a illusionary way but others can't so how can they stay elusive?

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    $\begingroup$ Is this a pokémon? $\endgroup$ – Victor Stafusa Nov 8 '16 at 20:59
  • $\begingroup$ @VictorStafusa In this context, kitsune refers to the Japanese folklore surrounding foxes (kitsune, itself, is Japanese for "fox"). $\endgroup$ – Frostfyre Nov 8 '16 at 21:04
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    $\begingroup$ I'm Romanian and have done my fair share of hiking in the Carpathians. Trust me when I tell you that they are very well explored mountains, and that there's not much about them that's mysterious or unexplored. There's a fairly high population density in that area, and civilizations have existed there for thousands of years. Those foxes could not have avoided detection short of magical invisibility. $\endgroup$ – AndreiROM Nov 8 '16 at 21:28
  • $\begingroup$ Well the thing is that the foxes are just normal creatures instead of mythical creatures in my book $\endgroup$ – Alexander R. Hunt Nov 8 '16 at 21:37
  • $\begingroup$ I know that a pig that can fly isn't really a pig — but, are they allowed to be underground-dwelling, like moles and prairie dogs? $\endgroup$ – Peregrine Rook Nov 8 '16 at 22:34
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Maybe you mean the same way cryptids don't, seeing as they don't exist :)

The only surefire answer is to make them solitary, and live only in areas with extremely low human population density. Steppe, tundra, rainforest, mountain, desert. However this is in direct opposition with your description of its habitat, so you may not like this answer. A surefire way to make sure your fox doesn't get discovered is if a human never gets close enough to see it.

A trait you could utilize is that your foxes aren't solitary, but rather can disguise their tails in some way (shedding their hair, wrapping them together, get inventive) and take shelter with common foxes (or canines) in protected or inconspicuous habitats. If you must choose a physical reason, I would go with the first option. Disguising oneself and blending in with a different species requires magic or biological handwaving.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well the extras are actually massive dreads of matted fur that function the same way as tail feathers of birds (being light weighted and long) , could it still work? $\endgroup$ – Alexander R. Hunt Nov 8 '16 at 21:39
  • $\begingroup$ Two thoughts: They can shed their hair at will, this can be a sort of learned response to remain innocuous in fox populations Or, they can untangle their fur with their paws, teeth, what-have you, basically comb out the matted fur. Maybe these two are the same explanation. So what forms the mats that's unique to the species in this case? Barring magic, they have more abundant hair growth, curly enough to naturally dread, or some habit in the way they use their tail that makes them form. $\endgroup$ – Ross Nov 8 '16 at 22:03
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Staying in isolate parts of the glob, only letting those with the illusion power breed. Keep their population low. Killing all humans who glimpses there true form.

Even with these precautions someone will see them and rumors will spreed but most people won't take them seriously just like they don't take stories of big foot seriously.

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