THE ICELANDIC ARCTIC FOX

A small Fox, with a relatively compact body, short legs, round ears and a short snout. A small-sized subspecies of Arctic Fox, with white and blue morphs being common along the west coast of Greenland, and Iceland, and white morphs being in a great majority in north-eastern Greenland and Svalbard. Winter coat is very dense and thick. Summer coat is thinner. Molting is from May to early July, and from September to December. White morph is pure white in winter, changing to mottled gray brown dorsally, and light gray to white on its underside in summer. Blue morph is gray brown, with a bluish tinge in winter, changing to dark gray brown in summer. Yellow eyes, with elongated pupils. Thickly haired feet. Tail is long and bushy. Females are slightly smaller than males, with 6 to 7 pairs of mammae.

About the species

Reproduction and behavior

Gestation: 52-54 days.
Young per birth: 5-10, smaller litter than mainland subspecies.
Weaning: 28-35 days.
Sexual maturity: 12 months.
Life span: 10 years.
Breeding season: March.

Births occur in late May or early June. The male has a full role in bringing up the pups, but nonbreeding yearling female may assist mated pairs for the first 6-8 weeks. Dens are often located under large rocks. Social behavior: mated pairs and monogamous.

Diet and interaction with the environment

The coast is very important and a stable resource of edible things, such as birds and eggs, seal carcasses, and invertebrates. In inland habitats main foods include ptarmigan in winter, and migrant birds, particularly waders and geese, in summer. Sheep are a relatively unimportant constituent of the diet. There are no lemmings in Iceland, Svalbard and western Greenland. Since the food abundance is highly seasonal, they cache food for the winter. Main predators: None. During the mating season, they have a territory, the size of which depends on food availability, ranging from 35 to 50 km2 . They have a number of adaptations that allow them to survive the harsh Arctic winter: a lower metabolic rate and lower body temperature in winter, which allows them to conserve energy, a superbly insulated winter coat, with a thick layer of fat as a food reserve; the short snout and small rounded ears also help to conserve heat.

Habitat:

Native to Iceland, Greenland and Svalbard islands (Norway), and Jan Mayen (Norway) until 1930. Found throughout Iceland, with a higher density in the western fjords. In Svalbard, they are found on all the islands. Their habitat is the arctic tundra, along rocky beaches, and far out and widely dispersed on the frozen pack ice. They prefer the tundra in the vicinity of bird cliffs during the summer. In fact, the Arctic Foxes (both lagopus lagopus and lagopus fuliginosus subspecies) are the only native mammals in Iceland.

Conservation status: Least Concern. Population in Iceland had been growing quite steadily up until 2010, but has shrunk by one-third over the past four years, at about 6.000 / 7.000 foxes. Main threats include climate change, lack of prey, and hunting at all seasons; they are regarded as vermin for supposed sheep-killing and damage to eider colonies. Its fur is not used anymore since it lost value. The Hornstrandir Nature Reserve is one of the few regions where it is protected in Iceland. Arctic Foxes were bred on farms in Iceland from the 1930s until the late 1940s, and again after 1980; the farm-bred blue Foxes are larger and more fertile than the native animals and their color is much lighter. Some have escaped and bred with Icelandic Foxes in the wild, especially in the southwestern regions, so gene swamping may represent a threat to the Icelandic Arctic Fox. Population on Svalbard is stable, estimated at 2.500 animals, despite centuries of intense hunting; outside the protected areas, locals are still allowed to hunt during a certain period in the winter. The Arctic Fox was eradicated on Jan Mayen in the 1930s as a result of trapping. Population in Greenland is also currently stable and is estimated at more than 10.000 animals.