The fox cubs were enjoying the late afternoon sun today. Lot’s of lolling around and sleeping, but the Little Dog Fox is (at 4 months old) reaching that awkward adolescent stage. The cub we call Long Nose is the other cub…
This is all play for the cubs… they won’t start breeding until about 9 months old. And an interesting side fact I learnt this week from the excellent BBC film ‘The British Garden: Life and Death on your Lawn‘ is that one litter of fox cubs can have up to five different fathers!
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
derwandersmann
14 Jul 2017Well, THAT would ensure genetic diversity!
Darko
15 Jul 2017I didn’t know that (about the 5 fathers, that is). As dW said, no fear for genetic diversity there!
Words
26 Jul 2017It’s one of the odd things that they are discovering through much better research and observation of fox communities. Foxes are one of the best species at adapting to environments, so in some ways it’s not a surprise that they have the genetics figured out as well.