Arctic fox

Vulpes lagopus · The Arctic fox is a small fox species that lives across the Arctic tundra of the Northern Hemisphere, from Iceland to Siberia to northern Canada.

Also called White fox, Polar fox, Snow fox.

Arctic fox
Photo: Jonatan Pie (unsplash.com/@r3dmax), CC0
Arctic fox
Photo: Hobboto4ek (Ольга Яковлевна Куликова / Olga Y. Kulikova), CC BY-SA 4.0
Arctic fox
Photo: Traroth, CC BY-SA 3.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassMammalia
OrderCarnivora
FamilyCanidae
GenusVulpes
SpeciesVulpes lagopus

Where it lives

Treeless tundra of Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and Siberia.

Fun facts

  • Ahead of winter, Arctic foxes gorge on food and can boost their body weight by more than 50% in fat reserves.
  • A single litter can hold up to 25 pups, the largest litter size known in any carnivore species.
  • Their paws are kept just above freezing so they can stand on ice and snow all day without pain or losing mobility.
  • They can hear a lemming burrowing under several inches of snow, then pounce and punch through the snow to grab it.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).