let sleeping foxes lie

Morning coffee in hand, I ventured out to a somewhat chilly “sunroom” porch this morning and found a red fox sleeping nearby.

Morning light hasn’t made it to the backyard yet, and the thermometer on the backdoor says -10 F.

So I sat, camera in hand, and waited for the fox to wake up — for an hour and a half.  It was a long nap, perhaps needed after a long night of hunting mice, or the like.  It got boring watching the fox nap, so I opened the window for a close-up, clearer telephoto shot.

Curled up, fur fluffed up, nose tucked under tail for protection — the fox is quite comfortable at this frigid temperature.  This seems to be the typical posture of canids (dogs) sleeping in the cold.

An arctic fox sleeping in a similar position (Curious Expeditions on Flickr photostream).  Note the nice pocket of insulating snow the animal has created around it.  Arctic Fox can tolerate temperature extremes of -70 F without shivering.

A gray wolf using the same heat conservative posture while sleeping in snow (photo by Jeffrey Lepore/Science Source)

Finally awake, now that the temperature is all the way up to O F. It must be time to get on with the day’s activities.

First on the agenda, eat some snow — replenish some body water lost in the nightly adventure.  I could see the fox biting chunks, chewing, and licking the edges of its sleeping area.

Licking the moisture off its muzzle

Stretching — this is a signal that the fox will either lie down for another nap, or take off in a few minutes.

Yawn — wow, that is a huge gape between its jaws, big enough to bite something pretty chunky. Too bad the woodchucks are hibernating.

Looking over at me, as I tap on the window, wishing the window were open instead of closed, so I could get a better photo.

A final stretch out, and the fox is off to make its rounds of the backyard.