The white-footed fox (''Vulpes vulpes pusilla''), also known as the desert fox, is a small, Asiatic subspecies of
red fox which occurs throughout most of northwestern Indian subcontinent,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
's desert districts from
Rawalpindi to
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...
and
Kutch in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Baluchistan, southern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, and
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
.
It is mostly found on sand-hills or in the broad sandy beds of semi-dry rivers, and only very rarely in fields, and then in the vicinity of sandy tracts.
Description
Like the
Turkmenian fox, the white-footed fox has a primitive, infantile skull compared to those of its northern cousins.
It is smaller than the
Afghan red fox and
Hill foxes, and never exhibits a red phase in its winter coat, nor the silvery, hoary phase of the Afghan red fox.
It closely resembles the unrelated
Bengal fox
The Bengal fox (''Vulpes bengalensis''), also known as the Indian fox, is a fox endemic to the Indian subcontinent from the Himalayan foothills and Terai of Nepal through southern India, and from southern and eastern Pakistan to eastern India an ...
in size, but is distinguished by its longer tail and hind feet.
As adults, their pelts are easily distinguished from other subspecies by the presence of a very distinct pale patch on each sides of the back behind the shoulders, which is overlapped by a dark, transverse stripe over the shoulders in front of the light patches. The colour on the back varies from brownish yellow to rusty red with slight admixture of white, while the flanks are whitish or greyish. The outer surface of the limbs are iron-grey or rufous, while the inner side of the forelegs and the whole front of the hind legs are white. The face is rufous, with dark markings around the eyes. The underparts are slaty in hue. The chin and the centre of the chest is white. The ear-tips are black or dark brown and paler at the base, lined with whitish hairs. The tail is almost the same colour as the back, but is less rufous on the sides and beneath. Most of the tail's hairs are black, and may form a dark ring at the end of the tail. The tip is white.
Behavior
It is similar in habits to the hill fox, but its diet is more carnivorous than that of other subspecies, and its prey is more restricted to
gerbil
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is us ...
s and
sand rats, due to the more barren habitat it occupies.
Gallery
File:Vpusillaskull.jpg, White-footed fox's skull
File:Typical Habitat for Desert Fox Dens.jpg, Typical habitat
File:Desert Fox Female in its Habitat.jpg, Desert Fox Female in its Habitat
File:White Footed Fox pup suckling.jpg, Mother and young
File:Desert Fox Pups.jpg, Pups at den
File:Desert Fox Pup Mock Hunting.jpg, A pup mock hunting
References
Works cited
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Vulpes
Mammals of Pakistan
Mammals described in 1854
Mammals of India
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