r/EverythingFoxes

I have always loved foxes but for a long time I only knew about a few kinds. Several kinds of foxes, like the red fox, Arctic fox and the Fennec fox are well known but there are many wonderful and less known ones! Some of the ones I hope to focus on are Blanford’s fox, the pale fox, corsac fox and the Tibetan fox! I specifically chose these ones because they are all truly foxes, some animals called foxes don’t belong to the genus Vulpes meaning they aren’t truly foxes. There are only 12 species of true foxes (if you only count ones in the genus Vulpes) meaning today you will learn about one third of all true foxes!

First, Blanfords fox, the scientific name for it is Vulpes cana. They live in dry rock mountains, which actually caused their most unusual thing! Unlike most canids, they have sharp semi-retractable curved claws and hairless footpads, almost all other desert foxes have hair on their footpads! Their very unique hairless footpads and curved claws help them climb and grip steep rock walls. They also can jump extraordinary high, nearly 10 feet! 9.8 feet to be exact. Their tail, which is, relative to its body size, one of the longest, helps them balance! Like most foxes they are omnivores and solitary but, most kinds of foxes hoard or stash food, in fact many animals do! But Blanfords foxes usually do not, this is likely because their diet mostly consists of insects and fruit. Though occasionally they do stash but much less than most foxes.

Next is the wonderful pale fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes pallida. Interestingly they rarely have to drink because they get almost all their needed water from food! In fact, they could, in theory, go their entire lives without drinking and still live to be old! They are also strictly nocturnal but surprisingly not solitary! They live in small groups or even sometimes just in a pair. Interesting they were officially data deficient for many years! In 2024 they were seen for the first time in Algeria in over 50 years! While their population estimates have a huge range, they are classified as least concern of extinction because they are assumed to be wide spread and just elusive. There are many reasons it’s hard to study them, first the desert makes it hard, second there surprisingly good camouflage, and third, they have very complex burrow systems! These burrow systems have sometimes been up to 49.2 feet long! Inside these burrows there are inner chambers that they meticulously line with dry grass and vegetable matter to keep their young cool!

Now onto the amazing Corsac fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes corsac, which is certainly one of the easier ones to remember! They are one of the more social species of foxes! They sometimes form hunting packs in winter. They are mostly nocturnal but can be awake in the day. And most unusually for foxes, they don’t defend one territory, instead they are nomadic wanderers. They aren’t very fast sprinters but they are amazing climbers! They are strictly monogamous and interestingly, it’s debated wether they mate for life or find a new mate each year. They can go for long periods without drinking water but they do have to drink it.

Last but most certainly not least is the Tibetan fox! This is my personal favorite based off looks! I recommend you look at some pictures of it! It has a wide blocky almost square face, while this might seem funny at first, it actually has a purpose! Its weird head is because it has elongated jaws to anchor its massive jaw muscles! And they form fascinating commensal hunting relationship with Tibetan brown bears. When a bear digs into a burrow to catch a pika, the fox waits patiently on the surface to intercept any pikas that try to escape out of the back exit holes! This immediately makes me think of Coyotes and badgers working together to hunt underground rodents, which is an entirely different but equally fascinating topic! (Though both coyotes and badger benefit in there’s but in foxes and bears only the fox benefits) Dietary studies on the Tibetan fox show that plateau pikas make up roughly 80% to 90% of their total diet. Their local population directly rises and falls based on how many pikas are available that year!

I hope you enjoyed and learned! After my recent post about the bush dog and maned wolf, which are both canids but not foxes (though the maned wolf is commonly wrongly called a fox on stilts) I wanted to make one about foxes! Some sources are the IUCN Canid Specialist Group, The Animal Diversity Web, and ResearchGate.