Читать книгу Alaska Fauna. Photo Album. 2020 - Romans Arzjancevs - Страница 3

– Red foxes colonised the North American continent in two waves: during or before the Illinoian glaciation, and during the Wisconsinan glaciation. Gene mapping demonstrates that red foxes in North America have been isolated from their Old World counterparts for over 400,000 years, thus raising the possibility that speciation has occurred, and that the previous binomial name of Vulpes fulva may be valid.

– Red foxes typically dominate other fox species. Arctic foxes generally escape competition from red foxes by living farther north, where food is too scarce to support the larger-bodied red species. Although the red species’ northern limit is linked to the availability of food, the Arctic species’ southern range is limited by the presence of the former. Red and Arctic foxes were both introduced to almost every island from the Aleutian Islands to the Alexander Archipelago during the 1830s—1930s by fur companies.

– Red foxes prefer to hunt in the early morning hours before sunrise and late evening. Although they typically forage alone, they may aggregate in resource-rich environments. When hunting mouse-like prey, they first pinpoint their prey’s location by sound, then leap, sailing high above their quarry, steering in mid-air with their tails, before landing on target up to 5 metres away. They typically only feed on carrion in the late evening hours and at night.