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media type="custom" key="24176924" width="126" height="118" Picture of a red fox

The Red Fox (Vulpini) Is A Living Thing Because...

**Red Fox Reproduces**
The red fox gives birth to their cubs. They are even born like humans. Usually it takes 49 to 56 days for the normal gestation period. The normal amount of cubs born is 5 at a time, but as many as thirteen cubs could be born on the same day by the same loving mother. At birth, the red fox has a birth mass between 70 and 120 grams. The mother’s mate would hunt for food for twelve weeks while the mother fox nurses her kits and keeps them warm while protecting them because the pups are blind and helpless. They drink their mother's milk which is three times richer than any cow’s milk. The cubs love it until they out grow out of the milk.

Two red fox cubs

**Red Fox Has Stages**
As the cubs get around ten days old, their tiny weight starts to triple while their eyes get a blue/grey color around the second week. By the third week, they grow miniature teeth and are finally capable of moving around. They start to become mini adults by the fourth week. Instead of milk all the time, they try some food that needs digestion and small pieces of meat. That is a pretty big step for them but an even bigger one is that by the next week they explore the outside world. The next few weeks are the same, chasing insects and playfully pouncing on one another. By the second month, they are off on their own. They usually live from two to four years in the wild. As months come and grow, their fur color changes along. Different months mean different seasons. The color of their fur adapts right into its enviromnent.

These are the appearences of the red fox in different seasons

**The Red Fox Needs Food**
The red fox will have a meal of food mice, rabbits, birds, and other small game, but if they are really desperate and no other food is available, fruits, vegetables, fish, frogs, and even worms are good enough for their meal. Sometimes us humans leave food scraps laying around that the red fox finds very tasty for them to eat. They will first catch their prey, or pick up a fruit /vegetable or food scrap and brings it to it's den and splits it in between it's familyif it has one. Other wise, its a delicious self meal.

A red fox dived down in the snow to catch its prey Red fox in mid-air about to dive down for an unsuspecting prey

**The Red Fox Has Predators**
The red fox unfortunatley has a handful of preators. Eagles, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, and bears will look for a red fox to be it's meal. It's shameful that humans are sometimes thrown into the mix. In certain countries, people might eat the fox meat if they are in need of food. In other places, the citizens will hunt down a poor innocent red fox then take their red/orange fur and make clothing or blankets and such to sell or keep. Others would take the inside of the skin out, keep the fur, and use it as a mat.

Eagle versus red fox during meal time

**The Red Fox Responds To Its Enviroment**
The red fox owns a small, slender body that is designed for speed and agility. Their legs are long (to run fast) and they have small stomachs. The small stomach gives the fox a slightly lighter weight, but has a con of having to eat more often. Their eyes are naturally able to work well in low light conditions. Their triangular ears are able to capture small noises such as a low rustling of a mouse to locate it and silently position itself at a 45 degree angle in the air, then dives down and pins the unsuspecting mouse to the ground and either prepares itself for a delicious meal, or take the food back to its den and share it or have a solo meal. The red fox would go down there for safety because of their predators roming around everywhere keeping an eye out for red foxes.



**The Red Fox Has An Appearance**
At the cub stage, the red fox can be a variety of colors. They can be silver, black, and cross variants. As they grow, their fur will turn a redish orangey color. All red foxes hace thick fur, a wide bushy tail, and a narrow, pointed muzzle. Their average size is 18-35 inches (45.5-90cm) for the head and body length and 11.8-21.8(30-55.5cm) for the tail alone. The average wheight is 6.6-30.8 pounds(3-24 kilograms) for both male and female red foxes. As seasons change, their fur color goes right along with them.

This is an average red fox about to prance on it's game. It is blending into the backround

**The Red Fox Has Needs**
Just like humans, the red fox need at the minimum food, water, air, and shelter to survive in the wild. Without food and waer, they would die of starvation and thirst. Without air, they won't be able to breathe and without shelter, if the outside world wasn't safe for them, they would at least have a safe place for them to scurry into or at least hide inside. If there was an earthquake, their partly underground den would most likely to colapse right on top of them so sometimes shelter wouldn't be the best choice for them, but in most cases, it's safe and sometimes it's just a place to stay instead of the mostly dangerous outside world.

**The Red Fox Meets It's Needs**
The red fox gets it's nutrients and energy through food. The fruits and vegetables have a variety of nutrients and energy. To conserve energy, rest each nightly (unless still out hunting) will help prepare a red fox for the next day. A stream/lake/river or any other bodies of water is the red fox's water bottle. The water is usually within a few hundred yards or closer from it's den so if a predator comes along, there would most likely be an easy escape unless the red fox is surrounded by predators. The red fox needs air as well. They have two lungs that send oxygen to other parts of the fox's body. The red fox has a part above-part below ground kind of den. It is made by dirt or sand or both! The red fox digs a hole with its paws until it is a reasonable size for it and its family if the red fox has one.

A fox family inside its den

**The Red Fox Has A Den**
The red fox has an partly above partly below ground type of den. The entrance is above ground so the fox can go inside its home. The size of any den is depended on the size of a family. For example, a mother fox has seven cubs and another one has three. The one with more kits would need a slightly bigger den to fit the whole family. Red foxes dig their own den in grassy areas where they hope for the best where their predators don't live. If their enviromnent is damaged or construction is created sometimes they have to go out into the country adn out into the city. In the city they would maybe dig into peoples yards and under poles or whatever they can find. Humans aren't a big fan of foxes so they would call professionals to capture the poor creature and kill it or send it back into the wild.

This is a red fox cub inside its den

**The Red Fox's** Scientific Classification

 * Kingdom: || Animalia ||
 * Phylum: || Chordata ||
 * Class: || Mammalia ||
 * Order: || Carnivora ||
 * Family: || Canidae ||
 * Tribe: || Vulpini ||
 * Genus: || //Vulpes// ||
 * Species: || //**V. vulpes**// ||
 * ~ Binomial name ||
 * = ** //Vulpes vulpes// ** (Linnaeus, 1758)[2home] ||
 * ~ Subspecies ||
 * < 45 ssp., see text ||
 * = Distribution of the red fox (green - native, blue - introduced, orange - presence uncertain). ||
 * ~ Synonyms ||
 * < //Canis vulpes// Linnaeus, 1758 ||
 * < //Canis vulpes// Linnaeus, 1758 ||