Red Foxes Are January Wildlife on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023

Summary: Red foxes are January wildlife on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023, on which the National Audubon Society assembles vulnerable sentients of North America.

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) kits at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), eastern coastal Kent County, central Delaware; Saturday, March 17, 2018, 09:57, image by Jennifer Cross/USFWS: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Red foxes are January wildlife on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023, whereby the National Audubon Society assembles North American vulnerable sentients abiding in, or accessing from Canada and Mexico, the United States.

The Carnivora (from Latin carō, “flesh” and -vorus, “eating”) clade’s Canidae (from Latin canis, “dog” and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) family member breeds during wintertime. Red foxes, categorized taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and classified scientifically as Vulpes vulpes (from Latin vulpēs, “fox”), count upon springtime newborns. They domicile in dens dug, with at least one entrance and one exit, by themselves or by woodchucks who sometimes no longer, sometimes still dwell there.

Red fox cubs and kits experience family life their first three months inside even as they exit daily as one-month-olds and permanently as 8- to 12-month-olds.

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) range map; green=native, purple=introduced, orange=presence uncertain; based upon IUCN Red List red fox geographic range and C. Sillero-Zubiri, M. Hoffmann and D.W. Macdonald, D.W., eds., Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs 2004 Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, Figure 5.3.1. Current distribution of the red fox: Zoologist, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

One-, one-plus-year-old parents file out first, then their cubs and kits, who find fall-winter dens within 30-mile (48.28-kilometer) radiuses from the 70-mile (112.65-kilometer) parental birth-den territory.

Ten-, 10-plus-month-old physically and sexually mature red fox female vixens and male dogs get together December-January southward, January-February centrally and February-April northward for lifetime monogamous mating. Red fox vixens have 1- to 13-pup litters, whom they house as 1.76- to 5.29-ounce (50- to 150-gram) newborns, within 49 to 56 days of their mating. Their 12- to 15-year life cycle imparts intelligent hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch within 9 to 14 days even as they itinerate on immature-muscled legs.

Red foxes journey as January wildlife on the Audubon Arctic wall calendar 2023 and breeding territories, where their denned pups journey as weaned 8- to 10-week-olds.

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) tracks in snow; Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006, 10:35: Erfil, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Early nursing, later nursing and weaning kindle respective diets of maternal milk; milk and mother-regurgitated food; and winter birds, mammals, reptiles and spring, summer, fall plants.

Red foxes plant-wise like apples and pears; black cherries, blueberries and raspberries; grains such as corn, sunflower seeds and wheat; grapes; grasses and sedges; and nuts. They munch animal-wise upon such invertebrates as beetles, caterpillars, crayfish, crickets and grasshoppers and upon such reptiles as lizards, snakes and turtles and upon turtle eggs. Domestic birds; domestic poultry; wild birds such as bobwhites, grouse, hawks, owls, pheasants and turkey; wild birds such as crows, songbirds and waterfowl nourish red foxes.

Red foxes, as January wildlife occurring on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023 and Northern Hemisphere wildlife year-round, obtain cold-weather food from their rock- or snow-covered stores.

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) dung; villaget of Commanster, northeastern Luxembourg province, Belgian High Ardennes, southeastern Belgium: James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Red foxes prefer gophers, hares, mice, mink, muskrats, opossums, porcupines, rabbits, raccoons, rats, shrew, skunks, squirrels, voles, weasels and woodchucks even as they pluck deer carrion.

American, Asian, Canadian, European, North African cities, deserts, farmlands, fields, forests, sand dunes, tundra and woodlands to 14,763.78-foot (4,500-meter) altitudes above sea level quarter red foxes. Physical maturity renders black-, elliptical-pupiled, yellow eyes; dark-nosed, pointed, white muzzles; black, brown, gray or orange-red-yellow heads, bodies, tails; white throats, chests, bellies and tail tips. It secures 8- to 17-pound (3.6- to 7.7-kilogram), 36- to 42-inch- (92- to 107-centimeter-) long bodies with bushy, 11- to 17.91-inch- (291- to 455-millimeter-) long tails.

Red foxes, slightly larger as males and slightly smaller as females, turn up as five-clawed front-, four-clawed rear-legged January wildlife on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023.

taxidermied specimens of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) variations, with Georgian white fox morp (left, front row); State Darwin Museum (Russian: Государственный Дарвиновский музей), Moscow, Central Russia; Saturday, May 17, 2008, 21:18: Shakko, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) kits at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), eastern coastal Kent County, central Delaware; Saturday, March 17, 2018, 09:57, image by Jennifer Cross/USFWS: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_fox_kits_(40215161564).jpg; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/40215161564/; Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/29123/rec/3

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) range map; green=native, purple=introduced, orange=presence uncertain; based upon IUCN Red List red fox geographic range @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/23062/193903628#geographic-range and C. Sillero-Zubiri, M. Hoffmann and D.W. Macdonald, D.W., eds., Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs 2004 Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, Figure 5.3.1. Current distribution of the red fox, @ https://www.carnivoreconservation.org/files/actionplans/canids.pdf: Zoologist, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki-Vulpes_vulpes.png

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) tracks in snow; Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006, 10:35: Erfil, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caminozorro.JPG

red fox (Vulpes vulpes) dung; villaget of Commanster, northeastern Luxembourg province, Belgian High Ardennes, southeastern Belgium: James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vulpes.vulpes.dung.jpg

taxidermied specimens of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) variations, with Georgian white fox morp (left, front row); State Darwin Museum (Russian: Государственный Дарвиновский музей), Moscow, Central Russia; Saturday, May 17, 2008, 21:18: Shakko, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vulpes_vulpes_colour_variations.jpg

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