The Red Fox, or Vulpes vulpes, is also a carnivore that eats plants too. Its diet is very simple because the red fox mainly eats small animals and nuts and berries. In the winter, the red fox eats small animals such as hares, mice, and other types of small mammals. In the summer, the Red Fox can poach a farmer's chicken and depend entirely on them. The red fox can have at least 10 babies in a litter. It takes about 2-3 months for a red fox to be pregnant and give birth to kits. The kits will leave their mother after seven months since they are able to take care of themselves. Then, they are ready to make a family. Adult foxes usually live alone except when they are raising babies. The adult foxes will make a sound like "wuk..wuk..wuk" when they are bringing food for the baby foxes, so the baby foxes will know that it is their parent, not an intruder.

 

Red foxes live all over the place; from North America, Central America, Europe, northern Asia, to even parts of Australia. They usually like to live in forests and brush lands. Red foxes can hear the noises that are going on underground and have an extraordinary sense of smell. The red fox is in the family Canidae and is sometimes described as cat-like dogs. They are mostly nocturnal and can adapt quickly to their surroundings. The importance of red foxes to the economy is their fur. The red fox isn't the only kind of fox though; there are fennec foxes, striped foxes, and many others. Carnivores mainly came from the order Carnivora. There are 10 families in all. They are Canidae, Ursidae, Procyonidae, Mustelidae, Viverridae, Hyaenidae, Felidae, Otariidae, Obdobenidae, and Phocidae.

 

The family Canidae contains dogs, wolves, jackals, foxes, and other types of doglike members. Ursidae contains all the bears and Procyonidae has all the raccoons. The family Mustelidae consists of skunks, mink, weasels, and badgers and they are very important to the economy because of their fur. Viverridae is the civet and mongoose family and the hyena family is in Hyaenidae. Felidae is the cat family and Otariidae contains the eared seals. Obdobenidae is the walrus family and Phocidae is the earless seal family. The families Otariidae, Obdobenidae, and Phocidae are also very important to the economy. They are important because of their blubber, bones, meat, tendons, and hides can be manufactured for all sorts of things. Carnivores are important to the environment because, without them, our environment would be populated by herbivores. Carnivores are important in many different ways and they are also very unique.

 

Author: Judy W.

Date Published: April 2006

 

Sources: Anonymous. "What is a Carnivore Page." www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/marssim/simhtml/info/whats-a-carnivore.html Lindsey, Kieran. "All About Canids Page." www.iwrc-online.org/kids/facts/Mammals/canids.htm Lindsey, Kieran. "All About Carnivore Page." www.iwrc-online.org/kids/facts/Mammals/carnivores.htm Platt, Rutherford. "Carnivores," Britannica Encyclopedia, Volume 2, 1998, p. 882 SciLINKS, Staff. Holt Science & Technology; Life Science. "Birds and Mammals." Ch. 16, section 2; "Mammals" p.394-395, Hartcourt Classroom Education Co. http://wyoming.gov/state/images/home_page/fall/fall.asp