The Arctic fox is very similar in appearance to the common red fox except that it is a little smaller.  In winter its coat becomes very long, making it look bulky, and its ears and muzzle are short so that it looks almost cat-like.  Both long coat and short ears are adaptations to living in the far north.  The small surface area of the ears prevents excessive loss of body-heat, while the thick coat acts as an excellent insulation, keeping heat in. 
    In summer the coat is greyish-yellow, with white on the underparts, the whole turning white or cream in winter.  The 'blue' fox is a variety of Arctic fox that has a bluish-grey coat throughout the year.  The proportion of 'blue' foxes varies in different regions.  They are common around coasts and on islands, where there is less snow in the winter. In western Greenland as many as half the total number of foxes may be 'blue'.  On the Canadian mainland, this number drops to 1 % of the total. 
    A further adaptation to live in polar regions is the growth of long hairs on the soles of the feet, jut as on the soles of the polar bear. the hairs probably help the foxes to keep their footing on ice, as well as providing insulation. 

From Arctic Circle to the Pole

    The range of the Arctic fox covers the treeless tundra that extends round the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America, and includes Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, and Scandinavia, where foxes are found in the mountains around the northern coasts of Finland and Norway.  In winter they move farther sotith, reaching the province of Quebec, in Canada, and southern Norway and Sweden, in Europe.  Arctic foxes are to be found on the smallest and most remote islands north of Canada and Greenland, where there are no other land mammals, except polar bears.  The foxes reach these almost inaccessible places by travelling across the pack ice, swimming between the ice floes when necessary.  They have been found on pack ice within 300 miles of the North Pole, where the), apparently feed on the remains of seals killed by polar bears and on fish. 
    Arctic foxes live a more communal and nomadic life than the red fox, often forming small bands ranging the countryside for food.  They are also less wary, and in remote areas show no fear of humans, often coming into camps to pilfer food, or out of sheer curiosity. They do not hibernate and, experimentally, have withstood temperatures of –73 'C / - 100 'F. 

Opportunist feeder

    Arctic foxes eat a wide variety, of food, depending on where they live.  Towards the southern end of the range food is plentiful, at least in summer when there will be large numbers of birds, lemmings, voles and hares, but the winter of an Arctic island is a lean season and the foxes must take advantage of any source of food. 
    In the European sector the main food of Arctic foxes is the lemming, so much so that the numbers of foxes increase and decrease with the explosive rises and fall of the lemming populations.  Where lemmings and voles, another major item of food, are scarce (or absent as in Iceland) the Arctic foxes search for other food.  They will take hares, fish, reindeer calves and berries, or roam the seashores, feeding on shellfish and carrion. 
    Arctic foxes are the main predator of any birds, especially ground nestirig ecies such as dticks, gulls, and shore birds, king eggs, young, and, if possible, adults. any of these, however, have their own tricks to avoid being caught and fox preditation is mainly on the weak or unwary. 
    Nesting on cliffs is a very successful way of avoiding foxes and many sea-birds such as kittiwakes and auks are free from danger. Other birds may be safe on small islands but the foxes manage to get across to them whole colonies may be wiped out.  Arctic jaegers, terns, divers and pink-footed geese defend their nests with force while others such as the eider duck rely on camouflage, sitting motionless on the nest with a good chance of not being noticed. 
    During the summer, when food is abundant, the Arctic foxes kill more than they immediately need.  The surplus is carried back to their dens where it is stored under stones and in crannies for use during the lean times of winter.  These caches may contain considerable stores of food.  One has been described as holding some 50 lemmings and 30 or 40 little auks, neatly arranged with heads bitten off and tails pointing in the same direction. 
    In the pack ice of the far north the Arctic fox follows the polar bear in the same way as jackals have been said to follow lions and other carnivores in the tropics to feed on the leftovers from their kills.  During the arctic winter every polar bear is said to be followed by, two or three foxes, patiently waiting for the bear to find and kill a seal. In the spring the polar bears' seal hunting is thought essential to the survival of the foxes as there is no other food for them.  If they can find a bear to follow, the foxes are pretty well assured of a reasonable supply of food, for, unless it is very hungry, the bear eats only the blubber, and the foxes are left with the meat and entrails. 
    The polar bear's method of catching a seal is to rip open the dome of snow over the breathing hole in the ice and pull the seal out with its paw.  It is under this dome that the seal bears her pup and nurses it.  Although it may be covered by several feet of snow, bears can scent it, as can the foxes who will dig down to the nursery to take the pup before its mother can rescue it. 

Adjustable reproduction

    The breeding season begins in April and the cubs are born in May or June after a gestation of 6 weeks.  The usual litter is 5-8, but when lemmings are at their peak of abundance, litters of 20 cubs have been known.  The male parent stays with the family, helping to feed the cubs and mating with the female again a few weeks after tht first litter is born.  The second litter is born in July or August and the family splits up in the autumn. 

Friend into enemy

    Polar bears sometimes attack Arctic foxes, especially if they are very hungry, and they may well lash out with a paw if the foxes come too close while they are feeding.  The foxes may also attack and kill one of their own number, under the same circumtances, or if one is injured. 

Carnivore's tidy mind

    It has been claimed that a weasel was once seen to kill a number of mice and lay them neatly in a row, cover them with earth and leaves, then kill more mice and lay these in a row on top of the first.  Naturalists tend to be ceptical of this, and in natural history, as on any other field of argument, to test an observation that seems to strain credulity one looks for comparable examples. 
    There is the case of a domestic cat which as fully authenticated.  The cat found a nest of the common rat, killed each of the babies in turn and carried it down a garden path for a distance of 20 ft, turned left along another path and there laid each dead baby rat side-by-side to a total of nine, in as neat a row as anyone could devise. Returning to the story of the weasel we have only to imagine the weasel scraping earth and leaves over the first row before continuing the second lot of killing to see how the episode of the domestic cat lends credence to what otherwise appears a tall story. Now we have the Arctic fox which habitually does something very like the weasel is supposed to have done and the domestic cat is known to have done.  All three are carnivores; and if one species of animal does something either habitually or frequently we can reasonably expect this same sort of behaviour to crop up, if only occasionally, in other animals of the same type. The survival value of such behaviour is obvious in a snow-dwelling animal.