The life of a fox in nature and its habits

The common fox lives in the Northern taiga of Western Siberia. From the canine family, the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug is inhabited by: arctic fox, common fox, wolf, raccoon dog.

The red fox is a medium-sized animal, from the nose to the tip of the tail its length reaches about a meter, at the withers it is from 30 to 40 centimeters in height. Its back is reddish-brownish, and its belly is white. The further you go south, the smaller and weaker the foxes become, and the bright red color gradually disappears.

This type of predator often hunts mouse-like rodents, hares, and birds. The fox's largest prey is the cubs of artiodactyls (roe deer, deer). In hungry years, the fox even feeds on insects and berries. The common fox is a beautiful and interesting natural object.

Morphological characteristics

The fox, being a distant relative of the wolf, differs from it in having a longer body, a sharp muzzle with slightly slanted eyes and a bushy tail. Body length up to 90 cm, tail from 30 to 60 cm, weight up to 10 kg. The body is elongated, the limbs are relatively short, the tail is long and bushy: it serves as a steering wheel for the fox during sharp turns and as a warm blanket during sleep. The hair is thick and soft. The fur on the back and sides is usually red-red, but there are individuals with a dark pattern on the back and shoulders (“cross fox”). The fur on the lower part is white or light gray. Northern foxes have the most beautiful red color, but they are not all the same. The further you go south, the smaller the foxes become, weaker, and the bright red color gradually disappears. The fox hears and distinguishes smells perfectly, but sees worse. Possessing acute hearing and an excellent sense of smell, she is graceful when hunting.

Resettlement in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

The common fox lives in Europe, North Africa, most of Asia, and North America. If we count the fox’s closest relatives, it turns out that foxes have populated literally the entire world. We can meet foxes in almost all areas of the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug. The animal is most common in the Berezovsky, Nizhnevartovsky and Surgut regions. The distribution is clearly visible on the table.

In the forest zone, the fox avoids closed lowland forests, sticking to the edges, clearings, and areas of forest interspersed with fields and meadows. The most pleasant living conditions for it are confined to lands in floodplains and swamps. In winter he mouses: he listens to the squeak of a rodent under the snow and, having discovered it, quickly digs it out.

Foxes settle in burrows, digging them on slopes, ridges, ridges, and under tree roots. Sometimes uses badger holes. In autumn and winter, especially in flat areas, the fox often lives under a pile of brushwood or under stones, and sometimes makes its den in the hollow of an old willow tree or simply in a hole under dense bushes.

As a rule, she digs a deep hole with several exits, which are placed under stones, between the roots of large trees or in deep convenient places; in the depths of the hole, the fox always digs a fairly spacious hole. There are several entrances, from which inclined corridors lead to the nest itself. Has been using Nora for many years.

Food

The fox is an omnivore. It feeds on mouse-like rodents and ground-nesting birds (mainly flightless chicks). Everywhere, the food source for foxes has become the muskrat, whose huts the fox destroys in winter, moving across frozen bodies of water. The importance of hares in the diet of foxes is small. The fox also eats other mammals of small and medium size, including sometimes lambs and roe deer cubs. In the summer, her usual lunch is replenished with all kinds of insects: beetles, wasps, bee larvae, flies. The fox's favorite food is voles and hares. Some foxes today feed on garbage in suburban landfills and garbage dumps. Although the fox is a predator, it does not refuse fruits and berries, and in a hungry year, even carrion. It also eats fish and does not disdain earthworms.

The number of foxes depends on the abundance of mouse-like rodents, hares, voles and muskrats.

Meaning in nature and human life

Foxes are hunted for their valuable pelt. They are obtained by rifle hunting, trapping, or other methods. No special measures are required to protect foxes. Enemies of foxes are few. The most dangerous is the wolf. Large birds of prey can attack fox cubs.

Fox's enemies: wolf, dogs, hawk. The fox is one of the most important commercial species of the district, a tireless consumer of mouse-like rodents, a significant regulator of their numbers in the forest zone of Western Siberia and at the same time it is a beautiful and interesting natural object

Does not avoid human proximity unless she is being pursued. And the fox approaches the person because in winter it cannot get food for itself. The fox has adapted to live in a variety of landscapes: from tundra and forests to steppes and deserts and even mountains. Lately, the animal has become less and less embarrassed by the presence of humans - the fox feels good not only in the vicinity of villages and villages, but also in the suburbs and even in big cities.

The fox is one of the few species of animals that can survive in the conditions of human economic activity, when other animals are forced to leave. This happens thanks to the amazing qualities of the fox that nature has endowed it with. Catching a fox is very difficult. In most cases, she simply runs away and carries off her cubs.

In areas of developed field farming, these animals are useful: they destroy harmful rodents. In the same places where hunting farms are organized: muskrats, ground squirrels and game birds (those engaged in hunting game birds), foxes cause harm.