Latest Britannica Encyclopedia of Mammals

Author: (English) Joyce Pope / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Survival
Some people seem to think that the lives of wild animals are extremely free. However, compared to most people, they lead an extremely dull life. They are controlled by a series of needs: searching for food, seeking mates, raising offspring, enduring extreme heat, cold, and damp weather, and avoiding attacks from carnivores and other predators. Taking the red fox as an example, this mammal's way of life repeats year after year. It lives in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere throughout the year and remains active. Its thick fur can withstand severe winters, but food is scarce, so it eats whatever it can find, such as leftovers from large animals along the way or within its activity range. Male and female foxes mate in midwinter, and their sharp cries can be heard on cold nights in the countryside. These paired foxes can maintain their mating relationship for several seasons. However, they usually change partners every year. The male and female may mate in January of each year. In March, the female digs a den to raise three or four cubs that will be born in April. In the first three weeks after giving birth, the male brings food to the female, and the female nurses the cubs. After three weeks, the female briefly leaves the cubs to hunt for food and then returns to regurgitate meat for them until they are about four weeks old. But before the eight weeks, the female continues to nurse them. Throughout the summer, the fox parents busy themselves feeding and protecting the cubs, watching them learn survival skills through play fighting. The cubs may even tease and kill injured animals brought back by their parents to practice hunting. The fox parents also show the cubs how to hunt. By late summer, the cubs have already started living independently. By autumn, they have learned as much survival skills as possible from their parents and then leave them to find their own territories. Meanwhile, the adult foxes, exhausted from raising the cubs, need some time to prepare for winter. They begin to shed their fur, growing thick, fluffy coats, and hunt for inexperienced young rabbits and other animals that are still abundant in early winter. They rely on this to prepare for the upcoming harsh times. Especially, during cold weather, they must undergo strict mating and breeding. Despite the care of their parents, only a small portion of the cubs born that year survive. Those one-year-old cubs can live for several more years. Despite the many natural and human dangers around them, some foxes still live for ten years or even longer. P13