Arctic Foxes

Due to living in some of the coldest regions in the world, arctic foxes are built to handle extreme cold with their thick coats and compact body shape, having a short muzzle, legs, and short thick ears.  Arctic foxes are also the only canid whose foot pads are covered in fur.  Arctic Foxes come in two distinct coat colors in the wild, white and blue. White arctic foxes change seasonally to be camouflaged to their environment, being white in the winter and changing to brown with light gray along their abdomen in the summer. The blue arctic fox is often dark blue in summer and slightly lighter blue or gray in winter.  

Arctic foxes generally eat any small animal they can find, including lemmings, voles, hares, birds, eggs, fish, and carrion. They’ll also eat berries and seaweed when it’s available, but they are mainly a bird egg predator, consuming eggs of most bird species.  They don’t hibernate, but they’ll build up fat reserves in autumn, sometimes increasing their weight by  50%, and because of the harsh winters in their environment, when food is overabundant they are known to cache a surplus of food as a reserve.

Arctic Foxes are found in Northern Europe, Northern Asia, North America, and are the only land mammal native to Iceland. Since Arctic foxes mainly live in areas where food is harder to find, they have been known to make trips within their home range that usually last around three days and can happen a few times a month. Arctic foxes can travel up to as much as ninety-six miles in one day. Because of this, Arctic foxes are at more of a risk to be seen or attacked by predators, so their mortality rate is much higher than foxes who stay in one area.  Sadly, in the wild arctic foxes normally don’t live past their first year.