Cold Warrior: The Arctic Fox Is An Adaptable Rascal
Arctic Foxes are about as clever as any creature of the tundra! They adopt both scavenger and predator diets, depending on conditions. As predators, they can locate--and catch--small animals hidden deep under the snow! They hunt in any terrain in their habitat though--including volcanic terrain.
If they aren't hunting their favorites--lemmings, voles, and such--they might be following polar bears across the northern sea-ice to scavenge. Successful scavengers are big-time opportunists: this Fox on the Rocks in the photo below is patrolling the coasts of the Pribilof Islands near Alaska.
You can find these guys anywhere north of the tree line in Arctic tundra, throughout Eurasia and North America. In some places, the Arctic Fox is a treasured legacy of pristine nature--for instance, it is the only land mammal native to Iceland.
Arctic Fox serenade
Hornvik, Hornstrandir Peninsula, Iceland, July 2012. A wild fox (terribly shy of people, as you can see) came up and treated us to this concert.
But in Finland and Scandinavia, on Mednyi Island in Russia, and on the Pribilof Islands the Arctic Fox is in trouble--there are precariously few left in those regions. They were once hunted extensively for their fur--which is almost always white in winter.
A very few Arctic Foxes put on a blue (usually a grey/blue) coat for the winter.
And most all prefer brown in summer.
70 below? No Problemo! She has some of the best insulation in nature: her guard-hairs grow inches think in winter, and her foot pads are covered with thick hair to prevent frostbite!
But, unfortunately, thick, luxuriant fur is more desirable to fur-seeking humans! Although hunting of Arctic Foxes is on the decline, it is still a major threat to them in the areas where their population is scarce. These foxes are protected in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and under the rules of the European Community.
Where they are not protected, there are rescue centers that will take in Arctic Fox kits orphaned by hunting, disease, competition with rival Red Foxes, or chemical contamination. "Freddy" here is a rescue from the Arctic Fox Center in Iceland.
Did these Winter Soldiers evolve in the high Tibetan plateau, 3.6 to 5.1 million years ago? Recent fossil evidence has led to a newly-named species--Vulpes qiuzhudingi--that might be the ancestor of the Arctic Fox, according to an article in Proceedings of The Royal Society B.
Imagine if this intrepid species made the trek--generation by generation--on foot, all the way from the Tibetan Plateau to the High Arctic of Canada! There, in this photo by a volunteer at The Arctic Fox Center, a Mama Arctic Fox named "Tempête" and 2 of her 13 kits are foraging on Bylot Island.
Photo from Arctic Fox Center Blog https://arcticfoxblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/ni...
