Everything about The Tibetan Fox totally explained
The
Tibetan Fox (
Vulpes ferrilata), also called the
Tibetan Sand Fox or simply the
Sand Fox, is a
species of
true fox that inhabits the high
Tibetan Plateau in
Nepal,
China, and
India, up to
altitudes of about 5300 m. The fox was first described by the British naturalist
Brian Houghton Hodgson in
1842. It has the highest sound sensitivity of all
foxes.
Physical description
The Tibetan Fox is one of the smaller fox species. It has thick, soft
fur that protects it from the winds of the high mountains, with a dense
undercoat that's brown to rusty yellow in color. The fur on the sides and rump is colored gray. The tip of the
tail is white. The body has a length of 50 to 70 cm from head to body and a tail length of 29 to 40 cm. Weight ranges from 3 to 4 kg.
The Tibetan Fox has a unique face, which is almost square in shape. It is uncertain as to why. As seen in the
Planet Earth episode "Great Plains", the fox keeps its body stiff and its head level when stalking. Some speculate that this helps hide the bulk of their body to help sneak up on prey.
The Tibetan Fox's
karotype is made up of 36
chromosomes.
Behavior
Mated pairs remain together for life and also hunt together. The
mating season begins in late February and ends in late March.
After a
gestation period of about 50 to 60 days, two to four young are born in a
den, and stay with the parents until they're eight to ten months old. Shortly after leaving that'll search for mates and territory of their own.
In contrast to other fox species, Tibetan foxes are not highly
territorial, so they may be found near other foxes.
Diet
Tibetan Foxes feed on
rodents, ground
birds, and
lagomorphs.
A
1998 dropping analysis of 113 fox droppings to determine the Tibetan Fox diet showed a content of 95 percent
black-lipped pika (
Ochotona curzoniae) and 2.7 percent
Tibetan antelope (
Pantholops hodgsonii), most likely scavenged. The remainder consisted of
insects, bird
feathers, and
plants, including
Ephedra berries. A previous study in
1986 showed
Tibetan woolly hare (
Lepus oiostolus) and a
lizard of the
Phrynocephalus genus, while a separate study the previous year of 158 droppings in the
Qinghai Province of China noted additional content, including
Himalayan marmot (
Marmota himalayana),
Bharal (
Pseudois nayaur),
Himalayan Musk Deer (
Moschus chrysogaster), and
livestock.
Trivia
- The first time the Tibetan Fox was caught on camera was for the Great Plains episode on the BBC series Planet Earth in 2006.
Sources
"Tibetan fox (Vulpes ferrilata)." Canid Specialist Group, World Conservation Union/Species Survival Commission. 2005. (PDF file
)
"Species information: Vulpes ferrilata." IUCN Red List. ((External Link))
Borgwat, Melissa. "Vulpes ferrilata (Tibetan fox)." Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. 2001. (External Link) Further Information
Get more info on 'Tibetan Fox'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://tibetan_fox.totallyexplained.com">Tibetan Fox Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
