Information about the Natural History of Prince William Sound Alaska. Posts will be made by students enrolled in Bio 104 (Natural History of Alaska) at Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez, Alaska.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Alaska Red Fox
The red fox are members of the dog family Canidae and their general look is related to dogs, wolves, and coyotes. The red fox can be red, black, silver or red and silver. The red fox is 22 to 32 inches long and the tail is 14 inches to 16 inches long, the adult fox weights anywhere from 6 to 15 pounds. The red fox has very good senses such as sight, smell, and hearing. The red fox is generally found all through Alaska, except for the islands like Southeast Alaska, the western Aleutians, and Prince William Sound. Foxes like areas that are broken country, wide lowland marshes, and crisscrossed hills and draws, such as the south of the arctic tundra. It is also nearby in tundra regions, which it shares with the arctic fox. Where in this area the two species overlap, and the red fox is dominant, the red foxes have been seen digging white arctic foxes from their dens and killing them. The red foxes breed throughout February and March. Their den is a hole in the ground, 15 to 20 feet long, usually placed on the side of a hill, and may have numerous openings. Sometimes foxes dig their own dens, but most of the time they expand the homes of small burrowing animals, such as marmots. Inside the den is a grass-lined layer where well-furred blind babies, called kits, are born after 53 days. Four kits are common at birth, kits weigh about 4 ounces. Only one litter is born each year, the kits eyes finally open 8 to 10 days after birth. The young leave the den for the first time a month later. The mother gradually weans them, and by the time the kits are 3 months old, they are learning to hunt. Both parents care for the young. The family unit endures until autumn, when it breaks up and each animal is on its own. The red fox eat muskrats, squirrels, hares, birds, eggs, insects; vegetation, and carrion, voles appear to be the food they prefer.
Work Sited:
Some is from the lectures
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Alaskan-Red-Fox&id=335930
http://infoarticles.net/alaska-red-fox.html
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