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ANIMALS IN FOCUS
The Living Desert is home to four different fox species, each unique in appearance, range, habitat, and adaptations.
The island fox is found on six of the eight Channel Islands, located off the coast of Southern California, with each of the six islands having a unique subspecies. The Living Desert's island fox hails from San Clemente Island, the southernmost Channel Island. Once a critically endangered species with declining populations in the 1990s, the island fox’s IUCN Red List status has improved to “near threatened.” At 2.5 to 6 pounds, this is one of the smaller fox species. Their favored diet consists of rodents, insects, and fruit.
With its coloring and small size of 3 to 4 pounds, the kit fox can sometimes be mistaken for a coyote pup. This agile desert predator is a nocturnal hunter that prefers kangaroo rats, but also eats small rodents, birds, insects, and reptiles. Kit foxes can be found in the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico, within a habitat of desert scrub, chaparral, and grasslands.
Found in eastern and southern Africa, the bat-eared fox’s habitat consists of short-grass plains and open desert. The 7-to-12-pound bateared fox is unique in its preference for insects over mammalian prey and, interestingly, is often found near hooved animals because their dung attracts insects. Having more teeth than most mammals (46-50) and large ears (about 5 inches long) allows for better chewing of insects and specialized hearing to seek them out.
Weighing in at just 2 to 4 pounds, the fennec fox is the world’s smallest fox. Paired with that tiny stature are the largest ears relative to body size of any fox! Their big ears help with radiating excessive heat as well as honed hearing to locate prey. Residents of northern Africa, the fennec fox is well-adapted to its desert habitat, living mainly in sandy areas. Fennecs are speedy and agile, hunting mostly at night for their prey which includes small rodents, reptiles, and insects — though they are omnivores and also eat plants.
