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Fennec Fox

Vulpes zerda · medium

The fennec is the smallest canid in the world and has, in proportion, the largest ears of any. Those ears do two jobs. They radiate heat, dumping warmth through a dense network of surface blood vessels, and they hear extraordinarily well — a fennec locates insects and small vertebrates moving beneath the sand and digs them out having never seen them.

It is built throughout for a desert with almost no free water. Its kidneys concentrate urine heavily, and it can meet its needs from the moisture in prey and plants without drinking. Thick fur on the soles of the feet insulates against hot sand and gives grip on loose surfaces, and the pale coat reflects sunlight by day and holds warmth through cold desert nights.

Fennecs are nocturnal, spending the heat of the day in burrows that can be extensive and are often shared — unusually for a small fox, they appear to be social, living in family groups.

They range across the Sahara and neighbouring arid country. They are not currently considered threatened, though they are trapped for the exotic pet trade and for sale to tourists, and their habitat is poorly monitored across much of that range.

Where it lives

Worml lists the fennec fox as native to 10 countries — Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan and Tunisia. Its habitat is sandy desert and semi-desert.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Fennec Fox is rated medium. To solve the round you need to find any 5 of its 10 listed countries. How scoring works →

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