Everything about The Arctic Fox totally explained
The
Arctic Fox (
Vulpes lagopus), also known as the
White Fox or
Snow Fox, is a
fox of the order
Carnivora. It is a small
fox native to cold
Arctic regions of the
Northern Hemisphere. It is common in all three
tundra biomes. Although it's often assigned to its own
genus Alopex, the definitive mammal taxonomy list places it in
Vulpes with the majority of the other foxes. Both the mother and the father help to raise their young. The female leave the family and form their own groups and the males stay with the family.
Foxes tend to form
monogamous pairs in the breeding season. Litters of between 4 and 11
kits are born in the early summer. The parents raise the young in a large
den. Dens can be complex underground networks, housing many generations of foxes. Young from a previous year's litter may stay with the parents to help rear younger siblings.The cubs are brownish and as they get older they're white.
Diet
The Arctic Fox will generally eat any meat it can find, including
lemmings,
Arctic Hare,
reptiles and amphibians,
eggs, and
carrion. Lemmings are the most common prey. A family of foxes can eat dozens of lemmings each day. During April and May the Arctic Fox also preys on
Ringed Seal kits when the young animals are confined to a snow den and are relatively helpless. Fish beneath the ice are also part of its diet. When its normal prey is scarce, the Arctic Fox scavenges the leftovers of larger predators, such as the
Polar Bear, even though the bears' prey includes the Arctic Fox itself.
Size
The length of the head and body is 55 cm (21.7 in) in the male and 53 cm (21 in) in the female. The tail is 31 cm (12.2 in) long in the male and 30 cm (11.8 in) long in the female. It is 25-30 cm (9.9-11.8 in) high at the shoulder, and males weigh 3.8 kg (8.2 lb) while females can weigh 6 to 12 pounds.
Subspecies
Besides the nominate, there are three subspecies of this fox:
Population and Distribution
The Arctic Fox has a
circumpolar range, meaning that it's found throughout the entire Arctic, including the outer edges of Greenland,
Russia,
Canada,
Alaska, and
Svalbard, as well as in
sub-Arctic and
alpine areas, such as
Iceland and mainland alpine
Scandinavia. The conservation status of the species is good, except for the Scandinavian mainland population. It is acutely endangered there, despite decades of legal protection from hunting and persecution. The total population estimate in all of
Norway,
Sweden and
Finland is a mere 120 adult individuals.
The Arctic Fox is the only native land mammal to
Iceland. It came to the isolated North Atlantic island at the end of the last ice age, walking over the frozen sea.
The abundance of the Arctic Fox species tends to fluctuate in a cycle along with the population of lemmings. Because the fox reproduces very quickly and often dies young, population levels are not seriously impacted by
trapping. The Arctic Fox has, nonetheless, been eradicated from many areas where humans are settled.
The Arctic Fox is losing ground to the larger
Red Fox. Historically, the
Gray Wolf has kept Red Fox numbers down, but as the wolf has been hunted to near
extinction in much of its former range, the Red Fox population has grown larger, and it has taken over the niche of
top predator. In areas of northern
Europe there are programs in place that allow hunting of the Red Fox in the Arctic Fox's previous range.
As with many other game species, the best sources of historical and large scale population data are hunting bag records and questionnaires. There are several potential sources of error in such data collections. In addition, numbers vary widely between years due to the large population fluctuations. However, the total population of the Arctic Fox must be in the order of several hundred thousand animals.
The world population is thus not endangered, but two Arctic Fox subpopulations are. One is on Mednyi Island (
Commander Islands,
Russia), which was reduced by some 85-90%, to around 90 animals, as a result of mange caused by an ear tick introduced by dogs in the 1970s. The population is currently under treatment with antiparasitic drugs, but the result is still uncertain.
The other threatened population is the one in Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Kola Peninsula). This population decreased drastically around the turn of the century as a result of extreme fur prices which caused severe hunting also during population lows. The population has remained at a low density for more than 90 years, with additional reductions during the last decade. The total population estimate for 1997 is around 60 adults in Sweden, 11 adults in Finland and 50 in Norway. From Kola, there are indications of a similar situation, suggesting a population of around 20 adults. The Fennoscandian population thus numbers a total of 140 breeding adults. Even after local lemming peaks, the Arctic Fox population tends to collapse back to levels dangerously close to non-viability.
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