What are the Predators of an Arctic fox?

Arctic Foxes locate their prey under the snow, and then capture, kill, and consume it. They walk along the snow, listening with their sensitive hearing. Once an Arctic Fox locates a small animal, it will either dig it up or jump on the snow in order to break through so that it can access the prey hidden beneath.

Arctic foxes protect themselves with their sharp claws and fast running ability. They can even swim. The magnificent coats of the arctic fox change with the season, ranging from pristine white to silver blue to brown. This is a perfect camouflage to protect them against their greatest enemies.

Arctic fox is not the biggest of foxes so they will be highly vulnerable to the potential predators. While adult foxes are pretty safer from the Arctic predators, young often fall prey to the ground living terrestrial mammals. Polar bears are at the top of the food chain-they are thought to be the Arctic’s deadliest predators.

They like to feed and hunt on birds, fish, eggs, rodents, and carrion. They usually live in burrows to stay warm as well as to protect themselves from predators. The arctic fox has a good balance due to its long tail, just similar to a cat.

The Arctic Fox has many physical characteristics that allow it to live and survive in its environment. A dense, fluffy fur coat protects it from the cold, and small rounded ears control sound location and heat loss.

Polar bears, wolf packs and humans are only real predators of the adult Arctic fox, along with large birds of prey such as snowy owls, that primarily prey on the smaller and more vulnerable Arctic fox cubs.

Natural predators of the Arctic fox are golden eagles, polar bears, wolverines, red foxes, wolves, and grizzly bears . Arctic foxes must endure a temperature difference of up to 90-100 °C (160-180 °F) between the external environment and their internal core temperature.

Interesting Arctic fox Facts: Arctic fox is small animal that can reach 26 inches in length and 6.5 to 17 pounds of weight. Arctic fox is covered with thick white fur during the winter and grey-brownish fur during the summer. Arctic fox has rounded body, short legs and small ears.