From Carlos A Carmona
Iceland’s only predator, the Arctic Fox. Babies are just too cute playing nonstop.
In the wild, most individuals do not live past their first year but some exceptional ones survive up to 11 years. --WP
Yikes, that seems sad for a fox.
Natural predators of the Arctic fox include golden eagles, Arctic wolves, polar bears, wolverines, red foxes, and brown bears.
Still, if all those are lacking on Iceland, I guess it would naturally tend to live longer?
The first year seems to be the toughest for a lot of animals. They don’t get a lot of do-overs when they make mistakes. I think first year owl survival rates are around 50%.
I would have thought the weather would be a big contributing factor, but when looking for more Iceland-specific info, I saw this:
This dense, furry protection provides the fox with an enormous advantage against the cold, with temperatures having to drop as low as -94°F (-50°C) before the animal begins to show visible signs of discomfort. In this sense, the Arctic Fox trumps the mighty and far more infamous Polar Bear as the Arctic Circle’s best-suited predator. (Source)
Maybe it is just finding a reliable source of food that is key. 🤔
That article also called the fix Iceland’s only native mammal. That feels so odd, but it makes sense, it being an island. I wonder how they got there when no other mammal did…
Maybe it is just finding a reliable source of food that is key. 🤔
Indeed, there might just be an argument that the Arctic Fox constitutes two subspecies at this point. For example, above you have the classic warm-weather coat more typically seen in Iceland, and as stated above, blending in and ‘apex predator deterrence’ would be much less of an issue without the other predators trying to pick them off.
And of course, Iceland being a sort of geothermal greenhouse of sorts. By contrast, these beauties trying to hack it around the Arctic Circle, N. Russia and N. Canada seems naturally to be far more grueling as a proposal! Hence the (light-hearted) subspecies idea (boneheaded or not).
(NOTE: my energy is so random these days; I might reply with an extensiveness, with gaping text errors, or merely a select updoot; in any case thanks for kicking so much booty upon these animal shares, “A#” 💚)
The article I linked was pretty interesting. It said the Icelandic ones, only about 30% get the full white winter coat.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they have been isolated on the island long enough to become a distinctive subspecies, but I haven’t looked it up.
