These cute little foxes live in Africa, just like my distant basenji cousins. Except that bat-eared foxes live in different parts of Africa than where the basenjis usually live, so they probably do not belong to the same country clubs or otherwise hang out together.
Bat-eared foxes got their name because they have these gigantic ears, as you can see from the pictures. Their fancy scientific name is
Otocyon megalotis, and they are the only animals in the
Otocyon genus. The name of this genus comes from two Greek words,
oto for "ear," and
cyon for "dog." These foxes have been around for a very long time, like probably for 800,000 years or so. They used to also live in western and southern Asia, but now they are only in Africa.
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| A very pointy termite hill |
The thing that bat-eared foxes most like to eat is insects. Almost 80% of their diet is insects. They get these insects from termite hills and locust swarms and also by following zebras and antelopes around to eat the insects that land on their poop. Other yummy things that bat-eared foxes sometimes eat are rodents, lizards, scorpions, birds, eggs, and fruit.
Because they eat mostly insects, bat-eared foxes have teeth that are very different from regular foxes' teeth, and that is why they are in the genus
Otocyon instead of the genus
Vulpes, which is the family other foxes are in. For a while, scientists thought that bat-eared foxes were not even related to true foxes, but now they think they are probably very distant cousins.
Bat-eared foxes are about 15 inches tall, and their bodies are about 20 inches long. They usually weigh between 6 and 10 pounds. They like to sleep during the day and then go out hunting at night. The foxes can scan the ground with their big ears, and whenever they hear bugs hiding there, they dig them up and eat them. Bat-eared foxes live in small family groups in dens, with the mama and papa fox and their pups. Usually there are between 2 and 5 pups in a litter.
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| A bat-eared fox snoozing at the KC Zoo |
There are lots of bat-eared foxes, so we don't have to worry about them becoming extinct any time soon. We even have some bat-eared foxes in the zoo here in Kansas City, so Mom has seen them in person, but I haven't because dogs are not allowed in the zoo. Which is sad, because I think it would be fun to meet a real live fox from Africa!
