Ezo Red Fox: Difference between revisions

|reallife=The Ezo red fox is a red fox subspecies native to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the Russian island of Sakhalin and the disputed Kuril Islands of Kunashiri and Etorofu. It also inhabits the Japanese prefectures of Chiba and Saitama as an invasive species. The Ezo red fox was studied on Sakhalin in 1924 by Kyukichi Kishida, who gave the fox its formal Japanese name, Kitakitsune. The “Ezo” in Ezo red fox comes from its Hokkaido range, which was known as Ezo until 1869.

In a winter study of their diets, Ezo red foxes living in Hokkaido were found to eat red-backed voles and fish as their main prey. Other prey animals included [[Mountain Hare|mountain hares]], long-clawed shrews, small livestock such as chickens, and a variety of other bird species. These foxes are omnivorous, and as such will also consume plant matter; the aforementioned study observed potatoes, beets, berries, and dead grass in the diets of studied foxes, with the latter-most item composing 61% of plant matter consumed. Ezo red foxes living in Hokkaido’s Shiretoko National Park are known to seek food given to them by tourists as a secondary source of sustenance, especially when little natural prey is available.

Ezo red foxes tend to mate from late January to mid-February. Once a pair of Ezo foxes have copulated, they will dig a tunnel den into sloped ground, commonly around a clearing in a wooded area, in which to raise their kits. Some Ezo foxes have been known to make dens out of man-made structures such as deserted houses. Pregnant Ezo fox vixens give birth around late March to late April, and the den period usually lasts until June.

[[File:Vulpes_vulpes_laying_in_snow.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|left|An Ezo red fox laying in the snow in Hokkaido.]]

As an invasive species in the Chiba and Saitama prefectures, the Ezo red fox is in direct competition for food and territory with the regionally-native Japanese red fox ''(Vulpes vulpes japonica).'' Ezo red foxes are also common carriers of the zoonotic tapeworm ''Echinococcus multilocularis,'' which can be spread to the region's native animals, including its native foxes. There is also a risk of the Ezo red fox and Japanese red fox undergoing hybridization, should the populations interbreed, which could threaten the existence of the latter as a unique species.

|trivia=*An Ezo red fox family living in Hokkaido is the primary subject of the 1978 Japanese nature documentary film ''Kita-kitsune Monogatari,'' directed by Japanese director Koreyoshi Kurehara and narrated by Japanese actor Eiji Okada. An English localization of the film, called ''The Glacier Fox,'' was released in the U.S. the following year, narrated by Canadian actor Arthur Hill.