The orangish-red fur of the red fox stands out starkly against a snowy landscape. Foxes aren’t hibernators, and need to use their famous cunning and smarts to find food all year long. During the winter, that means mousing, or a behavior better known as snow-diving.
A large portion of a red foxes diet comes from small rodents, which burrow into the snow, rather than the frozen ground, to hide from winter predators. The red fox, and some Arctic foxes, have developed a unique, and entertaining, method of hunting in the winter where they leap into the air and dive head first into the snow to seek their prey.
Mice are extremely sensitive to noise and movement, so the foxes’ are careful to approach slowly and with precision. Foxes can locate animals under several feet of snow by shaking the heads to pinpoint the exact location of the animal. Once they’ve zeroed in their prey, foxes dive nose-first into the snow at speeds of two to four meters per second.
And they do this over and over again throughout the winter. While entertaining to watch, you can’t help but wonder if the repeated impact is damaging to the animal.
Last year, researchers at Cornell University set out to discover how the foxes can repeatedly snow-dive without injuring themselves.
To investigate, Professor Sunghwan Jung and other researchers created three-dimensional (3D) printed fox skulls and dropped them into fresh snow to determine the force of impact.
They found that the curved and pointed snout play a critical role in lessening the force. In fact, the initial impact phase of a fox diving into snow resembles the same results as a fox diving into water.
“The fox’s sharp snout doesn’t significantly compress the snow; it penetrates it without much resistance,” Jung explained. “This kind of elongated shape helps foxes dive into snow safely, so they can focus on hunting.”
The elongated snout also means the foxes are able to get to their prey more quickly, which increases their success rate.
Where to find a red fox
To locate a red fox, you first need to know their distinguishing features. The classic red fox has orange fur across their face, back, sides, and tail. Their throat, chin, and belly are a grayish-white. There are multiple color morphs of a red fox, ranging from white to black, though.
The best way to distinguish a red fox from a gray fox is that a white fox will have a white-tipped tail while a gray fox will have a black streak running down its back to the tail tip.
Red foxes are well adapted to suburban and rural communities, and can be found throughout North America, from Alaska to Florida. Red foxes are least common in the Southwest region.
Their vast habitat means that you have the potential to spot a red fox in almost any national park, but it can be tricky to spot these small, cunning creatures.
Foxes are typically nocturnal, usually forage alone, and travel along edges of meadows and forests. Your odds of spotting a fox might increase during winter, when foxes may increase their activity around dawn and dusk, and even sometimes in broad daylight. It’s also easier to spot their unique coloring against the snowy landscape.
In late April and May, females are nursing kits at their dens. At this time, foxes are sometimes more visible during daylight hours as they forage to get enough food for their growing offspring.
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