With food in its belly, the arctic fox has a better chance of making it through another long, dark winter. Once the animal emerges from its den, it’ll try to hunt again. It’s sort of like how bears hibernate, but for a shorter period of time. 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. 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. Sometimes an arctic fox will follow a polar bear on a hunting trip and eat the bear’s leftovers. 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.
When it’s not trying to keep warm or avoid predators, an arctic fox is on the hunt for food. And their white coats make it difficult for predators such as wolves, polar bears, and golden eagles to spot them among the ice and snow. This helps muffle an arctic fox’s footsteps, making it harder for prey to hear them. Their feet also have a layer of thick fur, like built-in snow boots. Their long, fluffy tails act like a blanket, keeping the fox warm when it wraps the tail around its body to sleep. Their thick fur coat keeps the fox’s body at a toasty 104☏. Luckily, these small foxes have some useful adaptations for living in the icy Arctic. From October to February, the sun never rises to shine warmth and light. Winter in the Arctic is unlike winter in most parts of the world. BUILT FOR THE ARCTICĪrctic foxes live on the land and sea ice within the Arctic Circle. Until spring arrives, this arctic fox will rely on some freeze-defying strategies, making it a champion of the cold. But warm fur alone might not keep this fox alive during the polar winter, when temperatures rarely get above zero degrees Fahrenheit.
Fox tend to drag their feet and also have more hair in their paws producing a print that is fuzzy around the edges and has a small pad imprint. The canine casually shakes the blanket of snow off her thick coat-the key to her survival. Fox: The fox is the smallest canine in the group and have the smallest print (2 to 3), almost dainty when compared to their bigger cousins. The lump is transformed into the furry white body of a lone arctic fox. Suddenly a snowy mound wiggles and reveals two dark eyes. Not far from the North Pole, the world is frozen for thousands of miles.