Fennec Foxes

The fennec fox, or fennec, is a small crepuscular fox found in the Sahara of North Africa, the Sinai Peninsula, South East Israel and the Arabian desert.

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea.

A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life.

The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia.

5 Week Old Fennec Fox Kit 😍🦊😍 by Lucy the Fennec Fox

Its most distinctive feature is its unusually large ears, which also serve to dissipate heat.

Fennec Fox Being Silly in a HUGE Room by Lucy the Fennec Fox

Its name comes from the Berber-Arabic word, which means fox.

The fennec is the smallest species of canid.

Its coat, ears, and kidney functions have adapted to high-temperature, low-water, desert environments.

The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs found on the left and right sides of the body in vertebrates.

Also, its hearing is sensitive enough to hear prey moving underground.

Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey.

It mainly eats insects, small mammals, and birds.

Birds, also known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.

Insects or Insecta are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum.

The fennec has a life span of up to 14 years in captivity and about 10 years in the wild.

Its main predators are the African varieties of eagle owl, jackals, and other large mammals.

Jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals of the genus Canis, which also includes wolves, coyotes and the domestic dog.

The American horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus Bubo, at least as traditionally described.

Families of fennecs dig out dens in the sand for habitation and protection, which can be as large as 120 m2 and adjoin the dens of other families.

Precise population figures are not known but are estimated from the frequency of sightings; these indicate that the animal is currently not threatened by extinction.

Knowledge of social interactions is limited to information gathered from captive animals.

The species is usually assigned to the genus Vulpes; however, this is debated due to differences between the fennec fox and other fox species.

The fennec's fur is prized by the indigenous peoples of North Africa, and in some parts of the world, the animal is considered an exotic pet.

An exotic pet is a rare or unusual animal pet: an animal kept within human households which is relatively unusual to keep or is generally thought of as a wild species rather than as a pet.