| SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION |
|
| COMMON NAME: | Arctic fox, white fox | | KINGDOM: | Animalia | | PHYLUM: | Chordata | | CLASS: | Mammalia | | ORDER: | Carnivora | | FAMILY: | Canidae | | GENUS SPECIES: | Alopex lagopus | |
|
| |
| |
| DESCRIPTION: | The arctic fox has a dense, bushy coat and a long, fluffy tail. There are two color phases. For the white phase, the fox has a thick, white coat during the colder, winter months and a shorter brownish to gray coat in the summer. The blue phase fox, has a long blue-gray coat in the winter and a shorter darker gray coat in the summer. | |
| |
| WEIGHT: | 2.7-4.5 kg (6-10 lb) | |
| DIET: | Prefers small mammals; also eats insects, seabirds, fish, seals, berries, carrion, and even stool. During summer months when food is plentiful, arctic foxes collect a surplus, storing it in their dens. | |
| GESTATION: | 49-57 days; usual litter size is 5-8 pups, but litters as large as 25 have been documented. Females normally have one litter sometime between April and June, and a second litter in July or August. | |
| SEXUAL MATURITY: | As soon as 10 months | |
| |
| RANGE: | Arctic regions of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and Iceland | |
| HABITAT: | Arctic and alpine tundra (treeless area), usually in coastal areas. Arctic foxes build dens in low mounds (1-4 m high) in the open tundra or in a pile of rocks at the base of a cliff. | |
| POPULATION: | GLOBAL | Not available | |
| STATUS: | IUCN | Not listed | | CITES | Not listed | | USFWS | Not listed | |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment