Description:The Arctic Fox weights from 2.5 to 9 Kg. The length is measure between 75 and 115 cm. Arctic Fox is the smallest canid in Canada. It about the size of domestic cat. The tail is long and bushy.
In the winter time, the Arctic Fox has a white coat. In the spring or early summer, the snow begins to melt. The white coat become a shed for a thinner, and two-tone brown pelage. About two weeks later, the back, tail, and legs become dark brown. Some of Arctic Fox has heavy, pale bluish-grey coat in the winter time. In the summer time, it become thinner and darker bluish grey.
The Arctic Fox makes a sound to communicate to other foxes. The courting foxes communicate with a barking yowl can be heard the great distance. Adults foxes help their pups to warn if there are any danger. The adults foxes give high pitch to communicate the pups of there are any danger.
Before the season of winter begins. The Arctic Fox begins to form mating pairs. They have fun during their mating pairs. They play, fight, and chasing. When the females is 51 to 57 days of pregnancy. The pairs will find the den to keep the puppies to be safe.
They ususally find the den near on the top of banks of rivers or lakes. They prefer to live where the soil is sandy, dry, and stable. The dens may be more than 300 years old and more than 100 entrances. Before the whelps are born, the adults share the responsibility for cleaning out a portion of the den and dig more than one entrances.
The whelps will born between late May and early June. The Arctic Fox has up to eleven whelps. "It is the largest litter record for any canid, double the mean value for the Red Fox and the highest of any wild mammal in the world." When the females stay in the den for caring and nursing the whelps. The male went out to hunt the food for them. After five to six weeks, the whelps get bigger, and ready to hunt the food. Their parents are hunting duties. The male decreases, to provide the food. The male will continue until 14 to 15 weeks for the whelps begin to leave the den.
In the summer time, five to ten percent of Arctic Fox eat birds, eggs, ground squirrels, and berries for diet. In the winter time, the Arctic Fox eat wolf kills, meat catches of Inuit trappers, and food catches by the fox during summer.
Every afternoon and every night the adult arctic foxes hunt food for their whelps. They bring back from three to eight lemmings a hunt. The adult foxes stalk slowly through the bush in order to get the food. The food that they hunted are rodents, ground squirrels and voles. They eat birds, eggs, and flightless young. That is their largest part of their diet. They also hunted for small marine animals, fish and carrion along the shorelines. Some of these foxes captured hundreds of birds during the winter. During the summer, they hunted a duck, goose, or shorebird from its nest and eat eggs. They sometimes kill cranes and geese; that their successful large preys.
Adult foxes and their young whelps have few enemies than most people have. Wolves eat foxes; if wolves catch one or find one. Golden eagles may be an enemy to young whelps because these golden eagles eat young animals such as young foxes. Grizzy bears are also their enemies. The adults keep the whelps in the den just to make sure they are safe.
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