The Great White Bear eats his fill of the seal he has killed; from a discreet distance a little white fox watches. When the bear wanders off, the canine camp follower takes his turn at the banquet table. Arctic foxes are the scavengers of the polar wastes.

        Sometimes they follow arctic wolves, cleaning up what is left of a caribou or reindeer. A stranded whale might provide a year-long feast for all the foxes in the area. Dog-like, the fox also follows man on his expeditions. Arctic travelers report its pestering tameness and curiosity, its shrill yapping bark, “like a bantam hen that has just laid an egg.”

        In summer the foxes feed on lemmings and other small rodents; also birds and eggs. When lemmings grow scarce-about every fourth or fifth year-the white foxes hunt far south of their usual range. In winter’s season of scarcity they stalk the snow-white ptarmigan and arctic hare, sometimes venture over sea ice miles from shore in in their endless search for food.

        In April or May, four to seven young are born in hillside burrows. Each weighs but two ounces at birth and has a fuzzy brown coat. The adult molts in spring, growing a summer coat of dingy brown. Before winter comes, he replaces it with a coat of white or blue. The blue phase may occur anywhere in the range, or in the same litter. But blues are more common at the eastern and western edges of the fox’s territory-in Iceland, and in the Pribilof Islands off Alaska.

        Shoulder height 10-12 in. Weight 6-15 lbs. Range: the Arctic to beyond 83 degrees N. Characteristics: rounded ears, short nose; white or bluish fur in winter.

Image via Wikipedia