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Arctic fox
This fox is also called a snow fox, a polar fox or a white fox.
Arctic foxes have the warmest fur of any animal, even warmer than the polar bear! They are suited to life in the Arctic Circle where it is freezing cold for most of the year.
1) What keeps the Arctic fox warm?
2) What is special about the fur of an Arctic fox?
The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line drawn on globes. See the blue dashes on the map below.
The Arctic Circle is made up of the coldest parts of Russia, the United States of America, Canada and Greenland. It is also made up of the Arctic Ocean where there is a massive sheet of floating ice.
3) Name two countries that have part of their land inside the Arctic Circle.
Photo by NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/C. Starr. Wobbly black circle by Mr Maher.
4) What covers part of the Arctic Ocean?
As well as thick fur, the Arctic fox has a cute, fluffy tail. Its tail is also called a "brush".
Its tail is useful because the fox curls it around its face like a scarf when the chill winds blow.
5) What is the name of the fox's tail?
What animal is this?
It's an Arctic fox! An Arctic fox’s fur changes colour with the seasons of the year. In winter, it is white so that it blends in with the snow. In the spring, when the weather gets warmer, the fox sheds its white, warm, winter coat. The fox's new coat of fur is grey-brown.
6) Why does its white fur fall off?
Arctic foxes like to eat small birds, eggs, berries, fish, squirrels, lemmings and voles.
A lemming
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A vole
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7) What fruit does the fox eat?
They use their great sense of smell and excellent hearing to hunt for their prey. Their small, pointy ears can even hear lemmings and voles moving around in underground tunnels.
8) Which two animals can the fox hear under the snow?
When an Arctic fox hears its next meal scurrying under the snow, it leaps into the air and pounces, breaking through the layer of snow right onto the prey underneath.
Often Arctic foxes follow polar bears to eat their leftovers.
9) How does the fox catch animals underground?