Kit fox

[ VULPES MACROTIS ]

After six months living alone in their burrows,

kit foxes are on the prowl for mates this month. These housecat-sized residents of barren regions in the southern San Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert are usually nocturnal to avoid summer heat, but they occasionally roam during the day. Mated pairs soon get to work excavating up to 30 burrows over several hundred acres that they use as shelters or escape routes from predators like coyotes. One multi-chambered den houses a litter of pups which are born in late winter. Seriously threatened by habitat destruction and housing developments, these gentle, graceful mammals prey exclusively on kangaroo rats and adapt to human presence in areas where they are protected.

NATURAL HISTORY

Kit foxes have thick fur on their feet that insulates against hot sand, provides traction on soft dunes, and mutes their steps when stalking prey.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

Scarcely a foot high at the shoulder and just over

2 feet long, kit foxes have outrageously oversized ears that work like periscopes to detect the sounds

of small rodents. Pale buff in color, they blend in perfectly against desert sands.