![]() The number fluctuates with food availability and geographic location. The female gives birth to six to twelve dark furred young called kits. Before the birth of the kits, both adults share the responsibility for cleaning out a portion of the den and digging one or more new entrances Dens may be up to 300 years old and possess as many as 100 entrances. The den sites are usually free from snow earlier than the surrounding landscape because of the good drainage. Den sites are typically located in areas free of permafrost-ridges of coarse gravel, or on the tops of banks of lakes or rivers where the soil is sandy, dry, and stable. The female may build a new nest or an old one may be utilized. Mating takes place between February and June each year: however, if the preceding winter was severe and the foxes are malnourished, they may breed later than usual or not at all. ReproductionĪrctic fox are sexually mature by 10 months of age. In addition to lemmings, the winter food of arctic foxes consists of arctic hares, ptarmigan and carrion. In summer, it uses stalking maneuvers to catch lemmings when they are scurrying across the tundra. It traces the lemmings’ movements under the snow and then pounces and digs rapidly down to the lemming’s tunnel or nest. In winter it hunts lemmings that are under the snow. The fox usually hunt in darkness, relying on an acute sense of smell and hearing to detect prey. In the summer, if food is plentiful, the arctic fox carries extra food to its den and caching it in a crevice or under rocks, or by making its own freezer by digging a hole in the permafrost and storing its food there. ![]() ![]() Lemmings and voles are a major food item, and fox population often peaks every four years in a cycle that follows lemming population changes. It eats small mammals such as lemmings, voles, and ground squirrels birds insects eggs berries carrion, and even the feces of other animals. The Arctic fox is an opportunistic eater, consuming just about whatever organic material it comes across. SizeĪrctic fox are 0.76-1 m (2.3-3.5 ft) in body length with a 0.3 m (12 in) tail. The rare blue phase is dark blue-gray in summer, pale blue-gray in winter. Its fur is dark gray to bluish brown with lighter underparts in the summer and white or creamy white in the winter. The arctic fox is the only canid that changes the color of its coal. a small black nose, short stubby legs, and a long bushy tail. The arctic fox has a compact body with small, rounded, curled back ears. In winter arctic fox move extensively out over the ocean covered ice pack. In the summer the arctic fox normally lives in the tundra north of the treeline but it will venture south into the boreal forest when its food sources decrease in the tundra. Also Sweden, Norway, Finland (rare), Iceland, Greenland, and Russia HabitatĪrctic foxes inhabit both inland and coastal terrain. ![]() Geographic DistributionĬircumpolar distribution: western Alaska, east through northern Canada in the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. CONSERVATION STATUS: Species or Population DependentĬLIMATE CHANGE: Vulnerable At the AquariumĪlthough not on exhibit in the Aquarium, the Arctic fox is included in our website animal database to expand on the information originally presented in the Arctic & Antarctic: Our Polar Regions in Peril exhibit, which was open in 20.
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