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How the Arctic Fox Survives −50 °C
The Arctic fox has the warmest coat of any mammal and does not shiver until −70 °C. How its body, coat and hunting strategy handle the polar winter.
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Topic
arctic fox
The Arctic fox lives where the annual mean temperature is below freezing and winter darkness lasts for months. It does not hibernate, does not migrate in any organised way, and simply keeps working through the polar winter.
These articles cover how that is physically possible, the two colour morphs and the different strategies behind them, and the regional emergency in Fennoscandia, where red foxes moving north are taking over both ground and dens.
What these articles will let you do
- Explain how an animal tolerates −50 °C without raising its metabolic rate much
- Distinguish the white and blue morphs and understand where each dominates
- Follow the link between a warming Arctic and a shrinking Arctic fox range
1 article on arctic fox
Arctic fox: common questions
- Do Arctic foxes hibernate?
- No. They stay active through the polar winter on cached food, scavenging behind polar bears and fat reserves laid down in autumn.
- Why do Arctic foxes turn white?
- The moult is triggered by day length and camouflages them against snow. Coastal 'blue' morph animals stay dark all year, where snow cover is unreliable.
- Are Arctic foxes endangered?
- Least Concern globally, but critically endangered in Fennoscandia — hit by historic trapping and now by red foxes expanding north.
Related topics
adaptation
How foxes survive extremes — the Arctic fox at −50 °C, the fennec in the Sahara, and the physics behind both.
species
The twelve true foxes of the genus Vulpes, plus the grey fox and other animals that carry the name.
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