Arctic Foxes And Polar Bears Are Partners In Crime

[Music] one of the most well adopted animals for cold climates this little Hunter can withstand the harshest environments the most notorious predators and the greediest fur Trappers it equipped with looks and smarts there's nothing that can stop it this is the my killer of the North the arctic fox [Music] hi I'm Danielle dufoe and you're watching animal logic today we're in Churchill Manitoba home of the polar bear looking for its unlikely occasional companion the arctic fox this frigid landscape on the west side of Canada's Hudson Bay has an average winter temperature of minus 25 degrees Celsius with some days getting as cold as -45 degrees it is no home for the week without proper gear a person could develop hypothermia in as little as five minutes welcome to the set of animal logic thank you today we are blessed by the presence of this beautiful arctic fox these canads are relatively small at about 60 centimeters in length and weighing just over three kilograms they're just slightly larger than a chihuahua and yet they can survive in the expanse of the Arctic in the past we've talked about how animals in colder climates tend to be larger than in the tropics having more fat and a smaller surface area relative to volume helps them keep warm but arctic foxes buck that trend so how do they survive in one of the coldest and most unforgiving climates on Earth well through a multi-pronged survival strategy the first and most crucial part is being really really good atwithstanding the cold even at extreme temperatures arctic foxes can keep warm due to their multi-layered pillage about 70 percent of it is a fine under fur that acts similar to down on birds even the pads on their toes are covered in fur a feature that gives them a rabbit-like appearance their scientific name volpi's lagopus means hair-footed Fox as this furry pad adaptation is unique among canids fur alone doesn't keep you warm and usually heat gets lost through the skinniest parts of your body to avoid this arctic foxes have shorts notes ears legs and Tails you can see that her ears are actually very short and round and that's one of the key adaptations that helps her hold on to her heat long ears are a little too good at radiating heat outwards so if they're shorter and rounder they help her hold on to that heat closer to her body her legs are also a lot shorter than other species of foxes which again helps retain the heat close to her body during cold snaps they basically roll themselves into a ball to minimize heat loss but the Arctic Fox's coolest cold fighting adaptation is something called counter current blood circulation this is basically a mechanism that keeps the fox's paws at a lower temperature than its core blood entering the pause is used to heat up the blood that's leaving which prevents the fox's core from being cooled down by losing heat out of its extremities but just like Thanos extreme cold in the Arctic is inevitable but arctic foxes can withstand it like nobody else their metabolic rate doesn't go up until it's minus 50. and they don't even start shivering until it's minus 70 degrees Celsius which is as cold as it gets in the Arctic only the baron plateaus of Antarctica get colder than this found their metabolic rate in the cold their food will digest slower and their bodies will store sugars and fats longer but it's no guarantee they won't starve food is scarce in a harsh Arctic winter all of this sounds like problems that other animals would solve by being bigger but being large is energetically expensive and for most of the Year there isn't much to eat around here [Music] during the summer when their fur turns brown to help them blend in with their environment the pressure is on to eat as much as possible on an average day an arctic fox will Patrol the beach during low tide to hunt for fish and invertebrates caught in tide pools waterfowl provide ample feeding opportunities nesting birds and their eggs are taken with such Gusto that a single arctic fox can consume over a thousand eggs in a single season foreign Lemmings are also heavily consumed when available but these species go through boom and bust periods and are usually only readily available every three to four years but when they're abundant they make up to 70 percent of the fox's diet Arctic Fox's ears are adapted to hear the frequency of their praise chirps and steps under the snow and then they strike diving head first into the snow to Ambush their prey foxes are universally known as being smart and resourceful arctic foxes are no exception they figured out that by living in the sub-arctic they can refrigerate their food by simply burying it in the snow saving food for the lean months can be a literal Lifesaver some of the caches are huge and in some cases they can hold over a hundred Birds most commonly petrols and Outlets by the end of fall they will have increased their weight by up to 50 percent but that doesn't mean they can just wait it out until spring even when they have food stashes finding food is a year-round challenge but everything is much harder in the winter in the northern part of their range the sun sets in late November and doesn't rise again until January during those long dark days temperatures dip into the minus 40s if they can't find anything to eat they won't see the sun rise again and they will die in the dark one of their survival strategies is to follow this ecosystem's apex predator and hope to eat its leftovers polar bears are seal Specialists and once they catch one they make sure to eat all the fat which is premium bare fuel mussels and other soft tissues are sometimes left behind and that's when arctic foxes come in it's sort of a free meal but it means traveling vast distances they've been seen as far as 800 kilometers away from the nearest landmass and about 150 kilometers from the North Pole and beyond that it means being exposed to lots of predators such as wolves Wolverines Eagles owls and even domestic dogs what unfortunately three out of four arctic foxes don't make it past their first winter and in adults the mortality rate is still very high at about 33 percent those who do survive the winter go back to their home ranges for the most beautiful time of the year mating season [Music] foxes are monogamous and live in labyrinthine dens and tunnels which can be up to a thousand square meters Denzel reused every year and some have been reported to be over a hundred years old the largest ones have dozens of Chambers and close to a hundred entrances these furry real estate Moguls are usually monogamous but sometimes live with extended family groups this is most common in the southern part of their range where food is more abundant because of their High mortality rate these cuties produce a fox ton of babies the record for biggest litter is 22 which is one of the largest of all mammals parents feed them until summer but after that they're forced to go out and become independent females sometimes stay nearby but males have to go far away sometimes up to 200 kilometers away from their native range males defend their territory aggressively and Mark it with bodily fluids on conspicuous places such as mounds of polar bear poo an unorthodox but effective pedestal another of their unique features is their color changing fur which is chocolate in the summer and vanilla in the late fall the color changes help them camouflage better be it on the brown tundra or on the White Ice but unfortunately all of these adaptations made their fur too desirable as recently as the late 70s over 40 000 arctic foxes were being taken every year this combined with climate change and diseases such as rabies have led to dwindling numbers as the permafrost melts red foxes which are twice as big as their Northern cousins are also moving northward and taking over the Arctic Fox's domain but thankfully their range is enormous and because they reproduce so quickly there are still enough foxes to consider them a species of least concern [Music] so what should we talk about next let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes every week thanks for watching see ya foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 344,005

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, smart, 4k, nature documentary, nature doc, floralogic, second nature, fox, arctic, arctic fox, dye, how to draw arctic fox, polar bear, mutualism, polar bear team up, polar bear and arctic fox, polar, cold, winter, snow, snow fox, polar fox, white fox, rare fox, red fox, arctic fox hunting, arctic fox mouse, arctic fox hunts mouse, dive, hunt, jump

Id: Q4iUa_N-t10

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023