Arctic fox is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It has short legs, small ears and a bushy tail, which it curls around my body when lying down to keep myself warm in the cold Arctic.
Its body is covered with thick white fur during the winter and grey-brownish fur during the summer. Seasonal variations in the colour of the fur ensure camouflage.
It lives in burrows that have up to 100 entrances, and in a blizzard it tunnels into the snow to create shelter. Its diet includes lemmings, voles, sea birds and their eggs, seal pups and fish.
When it’s not trying to keep warm or avoid predators, an arctic fox is on the hunt for food. They prefer to eat small rodents called lemmings, but when times are tough they’ll eat whatever they can find: insects, berries, and even the droppings of other animals. Sometimes an arctic fox will follow a polar bear on a hunting trip and eat the bear’s leftovers.
If a fox can’t find food, or if the weather gets really bad, it can dig a snow den and hunker down for up to two weeks. As long as a fox is warm, it can slow down its heart rate and metabolism, which helps the animal save energy so it doesn’t have to eat as much. It’s sort of like how bears hibernate, but for a shorter period of time.
Once the animal emerges from its den, it’ll try to hunt again. With food in its belly, the arctic fox has a better chance of making it through another long, dark winter.
Credit : National Geographic
Picture Credit : Google
