Fennec Fox: A small crepuscular fox native to Saharan Africa
The fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is a small fox that lives in sandy deserts.
It lives in the Sahara (in northern Africa) and the northern part of Saudi Arabia. Foxes are in the family Canidae. Canidae also includes dogs, wolves, and coyotes.
| Fennec fox | |
|---|---|
_Wilhelma_Zoo-8.jpg) | |
| A fennec fox to Wilhelma Zoo, Germany | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: | |
| Species: | V. zerda |
| Binomial name | |
| Vulpes zerda (Zimmermann, 1780) | |
 | |
| Natural range shown in red | |
This fox is agile. It has huge ears and very large eyes. The large ears help the fox lose excess heat. They also help it hear its prey from a long distance away. The fennec fox has hairy feet that protect it from the hot sand.
The fennec fox is nocturnal (most active at night). It rests during the day in a burrow in the sand. It lives in groups of up to 10 animals. It marks its territory with urine. Its life span is 10 to 12 years in the wild, and 10-14 years in captivity.
Fennec foxes can reproduce at the age of about 9 months.
Physical traits
These foxes are small. The head and body can range from 34 to 41 centimetres (13 to 16 inches). They weigh between 0.9–1.4 kilograms (2.0–3.1 pounds). Fennec foxes are famous for their large ears which can reach up to 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) or longer. Their tails can be between 18 to 31 centimetres (7.1 to 12.2 inches) long. Most of the time, their fur is a sandy-white color.
Diet
Fennec foxes eat small prey animals, insects, and fruits. Small prey include rodents, such as mice. Sometimes they will eat reptiles. They do not need water as often since they can get it from their food.
References
Other websites
Media related to Vulpes zerda at Wiki Commons
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Fennec fox, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.