Author: Spare

The Endangered Red Foxes
By Natasha Ngo

Description
Red Foxes also known as Vulpes are cunning and intelligent shy creatures. They are one of the most known foxes in the world and are nocturnal so they are mostly active only at night though some like to do their things at sunset or dawn. The Red Fox can be seen in reddish brown fur coats, silver, gold or sometimes but rarely black. Red Foxes are related to dogs so they may look like dogs in certain points however the Red Fox does not bark but does howl for calls. The Red Foxes life span on average is around 2-4 years in the wild. They have pointy ears, small black noses and fluffy, bushy tails the color of their fur coat, though the tip of their tail, their tummy, mouth and necks are white fur. The Red Fox also uses its tail to warm itself up for cold weather or winter, a brush to get leaves or dust sometimes use their tails for signals to other foxes for scent post.
SIZE The Red Foxes head to body on average will usually be approximately 46 cm to 86 depending on age, a cub, teenager or adult, their tail is approximately 30-65cm.The Red Foxes weight is 3 - 11 kg like size, depending on cub, teenager or adult.

Food
Red Foxes are omnivores, they eat and hunt for their own food as they are solitary creatures. They can eat many things that many different animals can not eat and can eat up to ANYTHING, Red foxes are not picky animals and will eat whatever is available. Some of the things that Red Foxes can list up to OVER 30 types of things. They eat all types of things, fruit, veggies, meat, bugs and insects. The Red Foxes hunt these many creatures by using their well known 'Mouse Leap’ skill which tells the red foxes their talent or status, it uses their good hearing, movement, speed, nose and knowledge. The Red Foxes hearing can go far enough to be able to hear from underground steps of a little young mouse and tiny steps of a grasshopper, when the Red Foxes finds or chooses its target /prey it will sneak up to it and use the Mouse Leap, a jump that immediately lands on its prey. Even though the Red Fox can hunt a lot, it can only eat up to 1/2 kg of food a day and the rest they store in an area somewhat like a cupboard called a cache, a type of hole that Foxes make and store their food in. Red Foxes or most foxes eat every part of the animal to live, bone, fur and flesh.
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Enemies!
The Red Fox is one of the many predators of the forest and grasslands, they can kill up to anything in the forest with skill and can run fast to escape and do many useful things .As solitary creatures, the Red Foxes won't rely on other creatures,( like most solitary creatures do) .There are some creatures that can be counted as
rivals to the Red Foxes because of the same matching hearing, speed and skills, though most of them usually hunt the Red Foxes for surviving . Some of those amazing creatures are: -Lynxes -Bobcat -Panthers -Wolves- -Cougars -Human kind/Man Coyotes -Puma -Mountain Lions -Eagles -Bears When a Red Fox meets one of those animals, it will usually not run back to its home like other animals would but would depend on their skills, intelligence, hearing and speed. In a way the Red Foxes are one of the animals that the predators like eating most because they have more meat then the small mice, rats and possums, etc, so without the Red Foxes the wolves, panthers, etc will have to find other big creatures and might even have to hunt on more rodents .The eagle is usually the biggest predator to the young Red Foxes because they are easier to lift and can't attack .

Habitats Red Foxes live in many different habitats around the world, like forest, swamps, mountains, deserts, human environments such as farms, rivers and near cities, they don't migrate and just stay in their one Biome unless they run out of food in their habitat which doesn't usually happen often. The don't have very specific areas to live in though and are mostly in all Biomes of the world. Sometimes a Red Fox can meet an Arctic Fox, the Red Foxes cousins in the snowy or cold areas with ice.They can survive in anything as long as there is food and water as well as a home to live in. FINDING A HOME When Red Foxes search for a den, they will usually search for and enlarge an old woodchuck, burrow, hollow log, stream bank, rock pile, cake or dense shrub. They will try to find an area on high ground where they can see all around. The den will be covered with dry leaves for warmth and camouflage and the den will have at LEAST 1 to 2 escape holes for emergency attacks or somewhat.

Save Us!
The Red Foxes are currently endangered( on the verge of extinction), they have recently been decreasing from our lands and we want to save them but why are they endangered? In the forest, recently the food and animals have been disappearing because needed plants/nature for human kind, like wood, paper, herbs, etc, soon the Red Foxes will have nothing to eat. Then the effect of that, the Red Foxes will then have to go in human environments like farms, cities and the humans will hire poachers to hunt them and completely kill their kind. Also some people hunt the Red Foxes for their fur, used in many fabrics or material like other creatures, or sometimes the Red Foxes are used for entertainment for poachers. But HOW do we help? We can save the Red Foxes by doing very simple things, whenever you see people donating to forest or on the internet, if possible just give some change! It will help the Red Foxes and we could save them just to do something as simple as that. But does this REALLY help? How? If you donate to forest, or the Red Foxes habitats/biomes the people who help/support the habitats/biomes can afford to buy more seeds so that the forest will have more nature or creatures, and if that happens then the Red Foxes won't have to search for food in human environments and with that human kinds won't have to hunt Red Foxes or clear the habitats, though we can't stop the hunting if its for human entertainment or fur and material. Here is a website that supports forest: http://www.heartofenglandforest.com/sponsor-a-sapling