Page 22 - World of Animals - Issue #39
P. 22

50 fox facts



                 9. Most wild            12. Silver
                 foxes do not
                see their third          foxes are
                   birthday
                A fox’s life expectancy is around   black or
               due to hunting and environmental  grey
               ten years, but in the wild they rarely
                make it past three years of age
                 pressures such as disease.
                                         The silver fox is a melanistic form
                 10. In Celtic           of the red fox which means they
              mythology, the             are the same species, but their fur
                                         is a different colour, They range
              fox symbolised             in colour from black through to
                   passion               grey, with all shades of silver in
                                         between. In the wild, silver foxes

                The foxes beautiful red, fiery   do not breed with each other,
                fur was thought to represent   but they have sadly been popular
               passion and play. These positive   in the fur trade and are bred in
               connotations meant if you saw   captivity for their silver fur.
               a fox, either in real life or in your
               dreams, it was time to put more
                                                                                         LEFT
               passion towards achieving your   13. They are                        Like cats, foxes   14. They can have up
              life goals, while remembering the                                       are skilled at
               importance of lightening up and   essentially                         climbing trees   to 24 siblings
                     having fun.        cat-like                                     and mark their   Arctic foxes, on average, have around five to

                                                                                      territory with
                                                                                              ten young but when times are good and food is
              11. Two thirds of         dogs                                           their urine  plentiful, it’s not unusual for a female to give birth
               all foxes in UK          Foxes are part of the                                 to much larger litters. They have been known to
                                                                                              reproduce up to 25 kits, which is more than any
                                        Canidae family, along with
               cities die each          animals like the domestic                             other wild mammal on the planet.
                year because            dog, wolf, jackal and dingo.
                                        Although foxes come from
                   of traffi c           the canine family and are
                As the population grows, so   related to dogs, they have
               does the amount of cars on the   many cat-like features.
                                        Just like cats, they have
               road, and the number of roads   vertical pupils, which helps
               to drive on. A rapid increase in   them see well in dark
                road networks means foxes
               have to take more risks when   conditions. Foxes also
               travelling between habitats and   stalk and pounce on their
                                        prey, they walk on tiptoes
                unfortunately cars hit a large   and some have retractable
                   number every year.
                                        claws like cats.
             15. They’ve

             got whiskers

             on their

             ankles



             Foxes have whiskers, like cats
             and dogs do, but a fox’s whiskers
             are longer than a dog’s and more
             closely resemble those of cats. They
             also have whiskers around their
             ankles, which act as feelers. This
             extra sense helps the fox navigate
             through burrows in the dark.

              RIGHT
             Foxes use both their eyesight
             and whiskers to navigate at night


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       020-027_50FoxFacts.indd   22                                                                                          12/10/2016   14:54
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