Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Canidae > Vulpes > Vulpes zerda

Vulpes zerda (Fennec Fox; fennec)

Synonyms: Canis zerda; Fennecus zerda

Wikipedia Abstract

The fennec fox or fennec (Vulpes zerda) is a small nocturnal fox found in the Sahara of North Africa. Its most distinctive feature is its unusually large ears, which also serve to dissipate heat. Its name comes from the Arabic word فنك (fanak), which means fox, and the species name zerda comes from the Greek word xeros which means dry, referring to the fox's habitat. The fennec is the smallest species of canid. Its coat, ears, and kidney functions have adapted to high-temperature, low-water, desert environments. In addition, its hearing is sensitive enough to hear prey moving underground. It mainly eats insects, small mammals, and birds.
View Wikipedia Record: Vulpes zerda

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
15
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 4.62
EDGE Score: 1.73
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.756 lbs (1.25 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  26 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Ectothermic [2]  10 %
Diet - Endothermic [2]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Plants [2]  30 %
Diet - Vertibrates [2]  10 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  9 months 4 days
Male Maturity [1]  9 months 4 days
Gestation [1]  51 days
Litter Size [1]  2
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  16 years
Nocturnal [3]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [4]  15 inches (39 cm)
Weaning [1]  66 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Banc d'Arguin National Park II 2949017 Mauritania
Dana Wildlife Reserve IV   Jordan  

Emblem of

Algeria

Prey / Diet

Jaculus jaculus (Lesser Egyptian jerboa)[5]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Athene noctua (Little Owl)1

Predators

Hyaena hyaena (Striped Hyena)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 57.4 Fennec fox, Vulpes zerda, C.S. Asa, C. Valdespino and F. Cuzin, Sillero-Zubiri, C., Hoffmann, M. and Macdonald, D.W. (eds). 2004. Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. x + 430 pp.
♦ 6International Flea Database
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0