Now, I’m going to test your taxonomic skills.
What is the Arctic fox’s closest relative?
If you have been a long-time reader of the blog, you should know the answer.
And if wordpress generates a hint (as it’s been known to do), then you’ll know it!
But I’ll tell you this– it’s not exactly what you’d think their closest relative would be.
Let’s just say, that if you take a good look at its close relative and the Arctic fox in its summer pelt, the similarities are striking.
Update: The answer is the swift fox.
Interesting! Looks a lot like the _ _ _ _ _ Fox (don’t want to ruin it for everyone else!)….
I never had a large interest in foxes until I became an owner of Shiba Inu. Every other person’s comment is always “gee, they look like a fox”. Having seen only a few foxes in my life, I investigated, and there are some members of the fox family that could possibly look similar.
Do you know anything about Fennec Foxes? And why in the world people want them as pets??
Fennecs were once considered be in their own genus (Fennecus), but now they are considered true foxes (Vulpes). The same thing is happening with the Arctic fox, which was onece Alopex. They probably belong in Vulpes.
Fennecs are colony breeders and are quite social. They also lack the active “violet” gland on the tail that other foxes have. This gland releases an odor that really stinks. Domestic dogs don’t have active violet glands, but in some dogs, they have either darker hair over it or a bald spot.
Fennecs can become easily imprinted on humans, they don’t stink, and are more social than other foxes. That’s why they are offered as pets.
However, there are domesticated red foxes, which are actually silvers. They were bred for tameness alone, but they turned into dogs.
Many foxes can be kept as pets and if raised properly as babies are very tame and excellent pets. I currently raise red foxes (my pair consists of a natural colored red male and marble colored female) and I also have an arctic fox and a gray fox. I know a breeder that has raised grays, reds, arctics, marbles, fennecs, and swifts. General opinion of those with experience in multple fox species is that gray foxes make the best pets. They are much more docile and affectionate than fennecs and also lack the scent gland reds and other species have. My female gray fox Shawnee is only 7 pounds and she craves human attention.
Grays are really interesting. They aren’t related to the other foxes at all. They probably the oldest extant dog species. In fact, the only reason why they resemble reds and the other si through convergent evolution.
And yes, I’ve heard that about gray foxes and they docile nature as pets.
In the wild, though, they can be quite aggressive. They drive out reds that come near their territories.
My grandparents used to trap foxes and hunt them for fur, and the reds could only be called in on red fox lures and calls. Gray could be called in on the red fox lures and calls. That’s because the reds fear the grays.
It’s also possible to cross a red fox and an Arctic fox. It creates a sterile hybrid. That’s why they’ve moved Arctic foxes into the red fox genus (Vulpes).
I don’t know if anyone has tried crossing an Arctic fox and a swift fox. But they have my guess is that it is very possible.
When I was growing up, I wanted a pet fox, but it turns out that in my state, you must be operating a fur farm, under a fur farm permit, to have one. You can no longer get a pet permit for native foxes.
But I could get a fennec with no problem.
I just found your youtube channel with your imprinted gray foxes. Very cool.
Thank you. :) Grays are wonderful pets. I knew that gray foxes were not considered “true” foxes. I’ve always been fascinated with foxes and try learn as much as I can. So arctic foxes are offcially Vulpes now? It makes sense. They are so similar to red foxes in so many aspects. I have heard that reds and arctics have interbred. Some breeders try to pass marble foxes off as part arctic but I have seen marbles produced by breeding 2 red foxes together and most breeders say it’s impossible to interbreed the 2 species. Where did you learn about the infertile offspring between them? I’d be really interested to read about that. I was surprised to learn swifts and arctics are so closely related. I’ve never had any real experience with swifts. I got to get close to some at the breeder’s I mentioned earlier but they were very skittish. She does sell them as pets but she’s never tried to interbreed them with arctics. I could imagine reds being scared of grays after watching their behaviors. Grays are very fast and very alert. Did you see my video of her response to the kitten?! Grays are so much smaller than reds and don’t seem as intelligent. I’d imagine they’d have to be vicous in order to survive in the same territory. I’ve read how reds are killing off arctics as the territories merge because of climate changes. Both our reds and our gray fox lived in the same home prior to us getting them and their pens were combined. The red/marble female actually dug under the pen and up into the gray’s side and attacked her.
It’s a shame that more states are banning foxes as pets. They’re so fascinating. Our reds never cease to amaze me. They are so intelligent it is almost unbelievable! Anyone who’s ever said animals lack the ability to reason have never spent time around a red fox! Have you looked into a marble or silver fox? Some states now consider them domestic animals.
Most reds in captivity are from Northern races. In fact, most silvers and melanistic reds can be traced to breeding populations in Atlantic Canada. Now, in warm-blooded animals, we have what’s called Bergmann’s rule, which says that northern races of warm-blooded animals are larger than southern races. However, it’s really that those from much colder climates are the larger. Larger bodies retain heat better. That’s why the big white-tailed deer live in Minnesota, and the wolves of Alaska are also larger than normal. That’s why your reds are larger than your grays.
Where I live, they are exactly the same size. The reds have longer legs and longer fur, but they weigh about the same- 8 to 11 pounds. It’s very rare to find a red fox that weighs over 12 pounds in my area. Normally, they are smaller in weight than Jack Russells, which are used to dig them out of their burrows. (The Jack Russell, like all dogs, has a much thicker skin than any fox, which is an adaptation that dogs have to protect themselves from fights with pack mates and from the flailing hooves of big game when dogs were wild wolves.)
The reds are not native to most of the Eastern United States, except Northern New England. http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/Spring%2005%20projects/RedFoxCasey/RedFox02.jpg
Number 6 (fulva) is not a native subpesc of red fox. It is the North American descendant of introduced English red foxes.
Red foxes of any color are considered native foxes in my state. That’s because there may be some native red foxes about and may have them in the local fulva genome. We do have a lot of cross foxes around, and cross foxes are not known to exist in England– although melanistic foxes are known.
Red foxes are very smart. My grandpa used to keep foxhounds for “chasing”– not hunting. The dogs simply never could catch one. That’s one reason why foxhounds often quit chasing foxes and go after deer, which they can catch. (This isn’t like England where they run the foxes down and shoot them. The foxes are of more value alive as things for the dogs to chase than dead.)
Why would the reds be smarter? Well, reds are more social. Reds have been found in groups that vary from the wolf-pack structure to the structure of a lion pride (one male with a bunch of females.) They also can’t climb trees to escape predators, so they have to really think things through. They also are the most widespread wild carnivore (after the wolf had been extirpated). They are found throughout Europe and Asia, colonized most of North America on their own, and are also found in North Africa and the Middle East. They have been introduced to Australia, the American South, and California.
Grays are found from the US-Canadian border (and very rarely north of the border) to Colombia and Venezuela. They are adaptable, but they prefer dense forests or thickets. Where I live (West Virginia), the grays are more common than reds in some areas than in others. We have a wild colony of reds that lives near the meadow, but there is a pair of grays that lives in the forest about a mile away. It’s not unusual to see reds foraging together, but if you see more than one gray in one place, it’s usually a mother with kits.
If Fennecs are now Vulpes, then Arctics will have to be Vulpes. They have been found to be very closely related to the swift fox, which is a Vulpes fox.
If you’re interested, I’d really like to be able to discuss foxes more with you. You could send me an email at malane3@yahoo.com so we don’t take up all your comment space. :)