Arctic fox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus or Vulpes lagopus) is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Although some authorities have suggested placing them in the Vulpes genus, they have long been considered the sole member of the genus Alopex.
Description
Arctic foxes have coats that come in two distinct color schemes.Foxes of the white scheme are white in the winter and in thesummer are dull brown, remaining whitish underneath. Foxes of the bluescheme are light gray in the winter, and in the summer aregray with a bluish tint.
Arctic foxes tend to be 50 to 60 cm long, not including a 30-cm tail. Theyare 20 to 30 cm tall at the shoulder, and usually weigh from 3 to 6 kg. Thus, theyare about the size of a domestic cat.
The species name, lagopus, means "rabbit foot," a reference to the thick hair on the pads of the animal's feet. Thehair helps reduce heat loss into snow and ice, and it improves traction.
Habits
Arctic foxes eat a wide variety of things, including lemmings, birds and their eggs, carrion, and plants. The most important of thesefoods is the lemming. A family of foxes can eat dozens of lemmings each day. When their normal prey is scarce, Arctic foxes havebeen known to scavenge the leftovers of larger predators, such as polar bears,even though polar bears' prey includes the Arctic fox itself.
The foxes tend to form monogamous pairs in the breeding season. Litters of abouthalf a dozen to a dozen whelps are born in the early summer, a very large litter size for mammals. The parents raise the young in a large den.
Population and distribution
Arctic foxes have a circumpolar range, meaning that they are foundthroughout the entire Arctic, including Russia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland,Iceland, and Svalbard. They areplentiful in most areas, although a few isolated populations are struggling.
The population of Arctic foxes tends to fluctuate in a cycle along with the population of lemmings. Because the foxesreproduce very quickly and often die young, population levels are not seriously impacted by trapping. Still, they have been eradicated from many areas where humans are settled.
The Arctic fox is frequently losing ground to the larger red fox. Historically,the Grey Wolf has kept the number of red foxes down, but as wolves have beenhunted to near extinction, the red fox population has grown larger, taking overthe niche of top predator. In areas of northern Europe there are programs to hunt redfoxes in the Arctic fox's previous range.
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