Fox

True Wild Life | Fox | The fox is a scavenger carnivours dog, generally found in urban city areas in the northern Hemisphere. The fox is a nocturnal mammal, meaning that the fox only goes out a night to hunt for prey. Wild foxes tend live for around 6-7 years, but some foxes have been known to be older than 13 in captivity. The wild fox hunts for the mouse and other small mammals and birds, but foxes appear to enjoy all species of insect.

A fox is generally smaller than other members of the dog family like wolves, jackals and domestic dogs. Foxes can be a pest in the cities as foxes are often seen tearing into rubbish. There are around 12 different species of fox found around the world, which include the urban fox or red fox, the beautifully white Arctic fox, the sand fox which is a light-coloured fox found in desert regions and the tiny yet big eared fennec fox.

Foxes in Europe have been the victims of fox hunting, an extremely controversial sport that involves humans on horses hunting out the fox, lead by a pack of hound dogs which would find the fox by following the scent of the fox. Fox hunting in this manner is now illegal, although it is still allowed if the sport only contains humans on horseback, without the use of their clever but somewhat vicious dogs.

The fox is also found in the more rural areas of the Northern hemisphere, although fox numbers in the countryside are outnumbered by fox numbers in cities as due to the foxes scavenging nature, food is more readily available in the urban streets.

Fennec Fox

True Wild Life | Fennec Fox | The fennec fox is a small species of canine found in the dry, sandy regions of the African Sahara Desert. The fennec fox is most well known for it's large ears which can be half as long as the body of the fennec fox. The fennec fox is the smallest fox in the world, with fennec fox individuals ranging from 24 cm to 41 cm in length. The fennec fox also has a remarkably long tail which ranges in length from 18 cm to 31 cm depending on the size of the fennec fox individual.

The fennec fox has thick fur which helps to keep the fennec fox cool in the day and warm during cold nights. The large ears of the fennec fox help to regulate the body heat of the fennec fox helping to keep the fennec fox cool during the hot daytime hours. This is done by blood running near the skin in the ear. This helps dissipate the heat.

The fennec fox is an omnivorous animal and it's diet mainly consists of insects, rodents, plants and fruits along with small reptiles and the occasional egg. The fennec fox has sandy coloured fur which helps to keep the fennec fox camouflaged when it is hunting. The sandy colour of the fennec fox's fur also helps the fennec fox remain unseen from predators.

A female fennec fox is able to breed twice a year but most female fennec foxes only breed once a year. The female fennec fox gives birth to 3 to 4 baby fennec foxes, known as kits. The fennec fox kits feed on the milk from the mother fennec fox for about a month while the mother fennec fox keeps male fennec foxes out of the den. When the kits are old enough they start to hunt with their mother.

Fennec foxes are known to live in small communities together of up to 10 fennec fox individuals. Fennec foxes are nocturnal animals meaning that they sleep in their burrows during the day and hunt for food above ground when it is dark.

Arctic Fox

True Wild Life | Arctic Fox | The Arctic Fox is a small white fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic fox is commonly found in the colder parts of Canada, Alaska, Northern Asia and Europe. The Arctic fox is also commonly known as the Snow fox or the White fox due to the fact that the Arctic fox has white fur and spends a great deal of time in the cold snow. The Arctic fox has extremely thick winter fur, which is apparently the warmest fur of all the mammals. The thick fur of the Arctic fox is definitely an essential for the Arctic fox to continue dwelling successfully in the harsh Arctic terrain where temperatures regularly fall below minus 40 degrees Celsius.

The Arctic fox tends to prey on lemmings, hares, reptiles, amphibians and occasionally vulnerable seal pups that are not close to their herd. The Arctic fox makes its den far under the surface of the ground, and can amazingly withstand temperatures of up to minus 50 degrees Celsius. As with many animals that inhabit the Arctic regions, the fur of the Arctic fox changes colour to adapt to its surroundings accordingly. In the winter, the Arctic fox has thick, white fur which allows the Arctic fox to remain warm and camouflaged in its snowy surroundings. In the summer months, the fur of the Arctic fox changes to a brown colour as there the snow will have melted. This newly coloured brown fur of the Arctic fox, allows the Arctic fox to remain as inconspicuous as possible whilst there is no snow in the Arctic during the summer months.

As one of the larger carnivores in the Arctic Circle, the Arctic fox has few natural predators within it's freezing environment. Polar bears, wolf packs and humans are only real predators of the adult Arctic fox, along with large birds of prey such as snowy owls, that primarily prey on the smaller and more vulnerable Arctic fox cubs.

The female Arctic fox gives birth to and raises her cubs in the safety of her den, which is a network of tunnels often underground. After a gestation period of a couple of months, the female Arctic fox gives birth to up to 15 cubs which are born at the start of summer and after being nursed by their mother, are fairly independent by the time the Arctic winter starts again.