14 DAY TRIAL // In many cultures, a fox is the symbol for a cunning person; in others a vixen is the symbol for the lascivious woman. But what do you really know about this animal?
1.During the Ice Age, 400-650,000 years ago, the red fox and polar fox split from a common ancestor, Vulpes alopecoides.
2.Foxes can live solitary, in couples with their offspring or in groups of 4-6 adults. The territory of the groups, depending on the resources, varies between 100 and 600 hectares, usually with a ray of 7 km (4.2 mi). The normal gait of a fox is a slow trot. Foxes can be found up to altitudes of 2,500 m (8,330 ft).
3.A fox can tell the sex, hierarchical position, status and the location of another fox with the help of its smell. When two foxes meet, the lower status one lowers its ears and displays its abdomen (the vulnerable part) as a sign of submission.
Foxes can emit up to 46 different calls. Their calls resemble a nasal dog bark. They hear sounds with frequencies between 700 to 3,000 Hz and have kin hearing (they hear the squeak of a mouse from a distance of 100 m or 330 ft). Their eyesight is weak and foxes hardly distinguish immobile objects.
A fox emits a heavy scent, given by glands located near anus, like in skunks. These mammals have very kin smell (they can keep the track of the prey for several kilometers).
4.Foxes hunt alone, during the night, preferentially rabbits and rodents (mice, voles, ground squirrels), but also moles, song birds, ducks, quails, partridges, pheasants, eggs, insects (like locusts and beetles, including their larvae), earth worms, but they also eat fruit (in some cases and in some species up to 90 %), cadavers of big hoofed animals (or even their living offspring) and red kangaroos (in Australia), fish, frogs and crayfish in wet areas and garbage in urban areas. A sole fox can destroy in one year 5,000-6,000 rodents.
In fact, there are large fox populations in London, Paris, Hamburg, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, Berlin and others, advantaged by the lack of predators and abundant food sources represented by human wastes, rodents and birds. The young of these urban foxes are prone to be victims of car accidents.
Foxes can consume plant food, too, like raspberries, cranberries, (fallen) apples, pears, grapes. A fox needs 300-600 grams of food per day; a lactating female 700 grams. The animal travels about 12 km (8 mi) per night in search for food.
They decimate the populations of nesting birds (shearwaters, ducks and so on). In US, following the extermination of the wolves and coyotes the number of the foxes boomed and the number of ducks plummeted. Still, foxes control rodent populations.
When spotting a rodent or bird on the ground, the fox approaches slowly to a distance from which it jumps over the prey.
Foxes are hunted by wolves, lynxes and eagles.
5.Foxes use dens dug by badgers, marmots, rabbits, shelducks and other foxes. They can cohabit with the badgers (but keeping the distance) and the comfortable den has many entrances for aeration and escape in case of danger. The fox dens use to be plagued by fleas and impregnated by the heavy smell of the anal glands.
6.Monogamous family is the rule for foxes, a rare case amongst mammals. They mate in January-February and gestation lasts 50-56 days. Females give birth to 3-12 cubs. Newborn have closed eyes and woolly dark gray hair. In two weeks the offspring open their eyes and can eat pre-digested meat, by the age of 5 weeks they go out of the den and play. They are independent at the age of 5 months. In 9 months they are sexually mature. These animals can live up to 12 years.
7.Foxes can reach 48 km (30 mi) per hour. The tail serves for balancing when making sudden movements.
8.There 48-77 races of red fox, depending on fur color and size.
9.Foxes are sensitive to rabies.