Red Fox | UPSC
HEADLINES:
Red fox displacing blue counterparts in Norway’s alpine areas
WHY IN NEWS:
Straight away from DownToEarth !
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3 : Conservation of Flora and Fauna : IUCN
ISSUE:
RED FOX
- The red fox, one of the most widespread carnivores in the world.
- Its range has increased alongside human expansion, having been introduced to Australia, where it is considered harmful to native mammals and bird populations.
DISTRIBUTION
- They are present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia plus parts of Northern Africa.
THREATS
- The species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries.
- It has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, and has successfully colonised many suburban and urban areas.
- Domestication of the red fox is also underway in Russia, and has resulted in the domesticated red fox.
HABITAT
- Red foxes are usually together in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties.
- Fruit and vegetable matter is also eaten sometimes.
- Although the red fox tends to kill smaller predators, including other fox species, it is vulnerable to attack from larger predators.
IUCN STATUS
IASbhai WINDUP:
RED FOX VS BLUE FOX
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, found that more cabins were being built in the alpine region for tourism purposes.
- These cabins and the roads built to reach them were playing a major role in causing the spread of the red and the decline of the blue fox, according to his study.
- Both, red and blue foxes were attracted to the roads built by humans.
- The red foxes used them to make their way from lower altitude areas to the mountainous ones.
- Consequently, these roads meant food for the foxes as well as other scavengers like crows.
- The density of red foxes increased closer to roads while that of blue ones decreased.
- It was not because blue foxes were not attracted to trash but rather because the red fox, being bigger than the blue, tended to dominate it in these areas.
- The blue fox is already endangered and the spread of the red fox could not just impact it .
SOURCES:THE HINDU | Red Fox | UPSC
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