| Common Name: | Arctic fox |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus species: | Alopex lagopus |
| FAST FACTS |
| FUN FACTS |
| ECOLOGY & CONSERVATION |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY |
| Description: |
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| Size: | 109 cm (43 in.) |
| Weight: | 2.7 to 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 to 57 days; usual litter size is 5 to 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 |
| Life span: | |
| 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 to 4 m high) in the open tundra or in a pile of rocks at the base of a cliff. |
| Population: | |
| Status: | |
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| 1. |
Communal and nomadic; the foxes form small bands and scavenge for food together. A family group consists of one male, two females (called vixens), and their young - if any. One of the vixens is a nonbreeding juvenile born the previous year, who stays to help care for the next litter. Arctic foxes are monogamous, usually mating for life. The father helps care for the young. |
| 2. |
The fur of the arctic fox has two phases: in the winter, it is entirely white, and in the summer the coat ranges from gray to brown on the back, and somewhat lighter on the belly. The foxes’ paws are sheathed in dense fur during the winter (unlike other canids), which is why they are named lagopus ("rabbit-footed"). Although they have been hunted for their fur and driven away for their predation on domestic sheep, arctic fox numbers remain relatively stable. |
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