Friendly Clever Fox Funny reaction look like laughing

2 years ago
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Funny and cute Animal Foxes can be friendly and do not pose much of a threat to humans or house pets. While most foxes are solitary creatures and keep to themselves, others, such as urban foxes, have learned to live alongside humans. Foxes make a variety of sounds and also communicate using their tails and other methods.

1. FOXES ARE RELATED TO DOGS.
Foxes are members of the Canidae family, which means they're related to wolves, jackals, and dogs. They're medium-sized, weighing anywhere between 2 and 24 pounds, with pointy faces, lithe frames, and bushy tails.

2. FOXES ARE SOLITARY.
Unlike their relatives, foxes are not pack animals. When raising their young, they live in small families—called a “leash of foxes” or a “skulk of foxes”—in underground burrows. Otherwise, they hunt and sleep alone.

3. FOXES HAVE A LOT IN COMMON WITH CATS.
Like a cat, the fox is most active after the sun goes down. It has vertically oriented pupils so it can see in dim light, and it hunts by stalking and pouncing on its prey. The fox also has sensitive cat-like whiskers and spines on its tongue. It walks on its toes, which accounts for its elegant, feline-like tread. The gray fox even has semi-retractable claws, making it the only member of the dog family that climbs trees. It has been known to sleep in the branches—just like a cat.

4. THERE ARE 12 TRUE FOXES—AND MANY RELATIVES.
Although there are 37 animals called foxes, only 12 are considered “true foxes,” meaning they're from the genus Vulpes. Some of these include the red, Arctic, fennec, and kit foxes. True foxes have flattened skulls, triangular snouts, and fluffy tails, but it's common to be confused when seeing one in real life. Research found that while nature lovers can identify most North American mammals, they frequently mix foxes up with other canids, like coyotes.

5. THE RED FOX IS THE MOST COMMON FOX.
Geographically, the red fox has the widest range of any of the 280 animals in the order Carnivora. While its natural habitat is a mixed landscape of scrub and woodland, its flexible diet allows it to adapt to many environments. As a result, its range is the entire Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to North Africa to Central America to the Asiatic steppes. It's even in Australia, where it's considered an invasive species.

6. FOXES USE THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD.
Like a guided missile, the fox harnesses the Earth's magnetic field to hunt. Other animals, like birds, sharks, and turtles, have this “magnetic sense,” but the fox is the first one we've discovered that uses it to catch prey.

According to New Scientist, the fox can see the earth's magnetic field as a “ring of shadow” on its eyes that darkens as it moves toward magnetic north. When the shadow and the sound of prey lines up, it's time to pounce. Check out this video to see a fox in action.

7. FOXES ARE GOOD PARENTS.
Fox pups are born blind and don't open their eyes until nine days after birth. During that time, they stay with the vixen (female) in the den while the dog (male) brings them food. They live with their parents until they're 7 months old. Vixens sometimes go to great lengths to protect their pups—once, in England, a fox pup was caught in a wire trap for two weeks but survived because its mother brought it food every day.

8. FOX PUP PLAY CAN GET VIOLENT.
Foxes are known to play among themselves, as well as with other animals. But play also establishes social hierarchy, and it starts very young. Animal behaviorist Sandra Alvarez-Betancourt studied thousands of hours of footage taken with an infrared camera of pup activity in the den. She discovered that the struggle for dominance starts as soon as the pups can walk. The play can be brutal—and even fatal. One in five pups never make it out of the den.

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