Fennec Fox

The fennec fox is a small wild fox of the dog family that lives in the sandy deserts of North Africa and the Sinai. Its scientific name is Vulpes zerda, and the word fennec comes from the Arabic word for fox. Because of where it lives, it is also called the Sahara fox, desert fox or sand fox, and a common mishearing of its name in English has given it another nickname, the phoenix fox. It is the smallest of all the world's foxes and of all wild members of the dog family, smaller than a house cat, and it is easy to recognize by its enormous ears, large dark eyes, short pointed muzzle and pale sandy coat. Other foxes also live in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, such as the Rüppell's fox and the pale fox, but none has ears as large relative to its size, and none depends as much on deep sand. Scientists have debated whether the fennec belongs in its own genus, Fennecus, because of its unusual skull, teeth and social life, but most now place it with the true foxes in Vulpes. The fennec fox is the national animal of Algeria, whose national football team is nicknamed Les Fennecs, and it is one of the most popular symbols of Saharan wildlife.

The fennec fox is tiny. An adult measures about 24 to 41 cm from nose to rump, with a bushy tail of 18 to 31 cm, stands only about 20 cm at the shoulder and weighs roughly 0.7 to 1.6 kg, usually between 1 and 1.5 kg. Males are only slightly larger than females. Its most famous feature is its ears, which can reach about 15 cm long, close to half the length of its body. Relative to body size, they are the largest ears of any canid. The inside of each ear is lined with long white hair that keeps sand out, and the thin skin is full of blood vessels. The coat is long, soft and thick, cream to pale reddish sand on the back, and white on the belly, throat and face, with a dark streak running from the inner corner of each eye down the muzzle. The tail is fluffy and darker toward the tip, which is black, and it has a dark spot on top that covers a scent gland. The soles of the feet are covered with dense fur, which protects them from sand that can be far too hot to touch at midday and helps the fox walk on loose dunes. Fennecs kept in captivity are sometimes bred for unusual colors, but wild fennecs always have the same pale desert coat that blends with the sand.

The fennec fox lives across the Sahara, from Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania in the west to Egypt and northern Sudan in the east, and into the Sinai Peninsula. According to the IUCN, its range covers Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara. To the south it reaches the northern edge of the Sahel, at around 14 degrees north, and to the north it stops where the desert gives way to steppe and farmland. Within this huge area, the fennec is tied to sand. It prefers stable dunes and sandy plains with some grass and low shrubs, which hold the soil together and let it dig deep burrows. Large sand seas, called ergs, such as the Grand Erg Oriental in Algeria and Tunisia, Erg Chebbi near Merzouga in Morocco and the dunes of the Ténéré in Niger and the Fezzan in Libya, are typical fennec country. It avoids rocky mountains and hard gravel plains, where other foxes such as the Rüppell's fox are more common, and it also occurs on coastal dunes along the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The fennec can live in some of the driest and hottest places on Earth, where daytime sand temperatures pass 70 degrees Celsius, and nights can fall close to freezing.

The fennec's huge ears are its main tool for surviving the desert. Their thin skin carries many blood vessels close to the surface, so warm blood flowing through them can lose heat into the air, working like a radiator. The ears also act as satellite dishes. They catch the faintest sounds, letting the fox hear insects, larvae and small rodents moving under the sand, so it can dig straight down to them. Fennecs are also built to save water. Their kidneys produce very concentrated urine, they lose little water through the skin, and they rarely need to drink. Most of the water they need comes from their food, including insects, prey and juicy plants, and they will drink when water is available. Their behavior helps as much as their body. Fennecs spend the hottest hours in deep burrows, where the sand stays much cooler and more humid than at the surface, and they come out at night. When they do get hot, they start panting rapidly, cooling themselves without wasting much water. The thick coat insulates against the cold of desert nights and also reflects the sun, while the fur on the soles of the feet works like snowshoes on soft sand and protects the pads from heat. These adaptations let the fennec live in places where few other mammals can survive.

The fennec fox is an omnivore that eats whatever the desert offers. Insects are a big part of its diet, especially beetles, locusts, grasshoppers and their larvae, many of which it finds by listening for them under the sand and then digging fast with its front paws. It also hunts small rodents such as gerbils and jerboas, lizards and geckos, small birds and their eggs, and it will eat snails and carrion when it finds them. Plant food matters too. Fennecs eat roots, tubers, leaves and fruit, including dates and other desert fruits, which give them both energy and water. Their diet shifts with the seasons and with what is available locally, so a fennec living near an oasis or farm may eat quite differently from one in the open dunes. Hunting takes place mostly at night, when the sand has cooled and prey is active. Fennecs move alone or in pairs, covering large distances in search of food, and they sometimes bury extra food near the burrow to eat later. Because they get most of their water from food, insects and moist plants are especially important in the driest months. In captivity they need a varied diet that is hard to copy, one of the many reasons wildlife experts advise against keeping them as pets.

Unlike most foxes, which live alone for much of the year, fennecs are social. They live in family groups of up to about ten animals, built around a breeding pair that stays together, plus their young from one or more litters. The family shares a burrow system dug in a stable dune or sandy slope. These dens can be large and complex, covering many square meters with several tunnels and up to a dozen or more entrances, and neighboring families sometimes dig their burrows close together. Fennecs mark their territory with urine and droppings, and males become more aggressive and mark more often during the breeding season. They are very vocal for such a small animal. Fennecs bark, yap, growl, whimper, chatter and make shrill cries, and each sound has a role, from warning of danger to calling to mates or pups. They spend much of the day sleeping in the burrow, often curled up with the tail over the nose, and become active at dusk. Play is common among young fennecs and even adults. Their main natural enemies are eagle owls and other large birds of prey, jackals and other carnivores, and domestic dogs. When threatened, fennecs rely on their speed, sharp hearing and burrows, and they can dig so fast that they seem to sink into the sand.

Fennec foxes breed once a year. Mating usually takes place from January to February, and after a pregnancy of about 50 to 52 days the female gives birth in March or April to a litter of usually two to five pups, in a chamber lined with soft material deep inside the burrow. Newborn fennec foxes are tiny, weighing only about 50 grams, with their eyes closed and folded ears. Their eyes open after about 8 to 11 days, and their ears slowly unfold and grow, looking enormous compared with the rest of the body as the pups develop. While the mother nurses and stays close to the pups, the father defends the den and brings food, and he may not be allowed near the young for the first weeks. The pups start to come out of the burrow and play near the entrance at about three to four weeks. They begin to eat solid food brought by the parents, and they are weaned at around two months. Young fennecs stay with the family for some time, sometimes helping with the next litter, before leaving to find their own territory. They become adults at about nine months to a year old and can breed from their first or second year. If a litter is lost early, a female may sometimes breed again in the same season, especially when food is plentiful.

The fennec fox is not endangered. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, in a global assessment from 2015 that is marked as needing an update, and considers its population stable, although nobody knows how many fennecs there are. Much of its range is remote desert with few people, which protects it. There are local threats, however. Fennecs are trapped in many parts of North Africa to be sold as pets or photo props for tourists, or for their fur, and they are often displayed at roadside stalls in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. New roads, settlements and oil and gas projects are spreading into parts of the Sahara, and they bring more people, traffic and dogs. The international trade in fennec foxes is regulated under CITES, and many countries protect the species by law. Outside Africa, fennecs are bred in captivity and kept as exotic pets in some places, which explains why so many people search for them online. They are wild animals, though: they are nocturnal, very noisy, need to dig, have special diets and do poorly in most homes, and in many countries and states keeping one is illegal or requires a permit. Watching fennecs in the wild with a responsible guide, or in good zoos that support conservation, is a better way to enjoy them than buying one.