Animal Spotlight: Fennec Fox

Taxonomy:

Credit: San Diego Zoo

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Canidae
• Genus: Vulpes
• Species: zerda

• Average Length: 9-16 in (29-41 cm)
• Average Tail Length: 7-12 in (18-30 cm)
• Average Weight: 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg)
• Average Lifespan: 10 years

Smaller than the average domestic cat, the fennec fox is the world’s smallest fox, but it’s oversized and large ears, measuring up to 6 inches, appear to have been borrowed from a bigger relative. It inhabits sandy deserts and semi-deserts, preferring stable sand dunes in which it can burrow. It’s region spans the deserts of the Sahara and throughout North Africa to the Sinai Peninsula and Arabia. These are the following countries in which this species can be found: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia.

Conservation News: Asiatic Lions, Giraffes, and Foxes

The Growing Success Story of the Asiatic Lion

Easily overshadowed by the African lion, the Asiatic lion once roamed the vast swaths of the Middle East and Asia. Up until the 17th century, it was found as far west as Palestine and throughout Arabia, Persia, and Northern India. However, indiscriminate hunting and killing to protect livestock led to a mass slaughter, leaving as few as ten Asiatic lions remaining by the late 1800s.

Their last refuge is western India’s Gir National Park, home to, according to a 2015 census, a little more than 500 Asiatic lions, the world’s only wild population. In comparison, about 20,000 African lions remain in the wild. The forest was originally hunting grounds for the royalty of Junagadh province. In the early 1900s, ruler Nawab Muhammad Rasul Khanji Babi noticed the startling decline and declared Gir as a protected area. The first official lion census, conducted in 1936, found 150 lions. Since then, a census has been taken every five years and has shown an upward trend.

Photographer: Tambako The Jaguar (Flickr user)