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The fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is a small fox native to the deserts of North Africa, ranging from Western Sahara and Mauritania to the Sinai Peninsula. Its most distinctive feature is its unusually large ears, which serve to dissipate heat and listen for underground prey.
A wide range of animals, e.g. lizards, birds, rodents, and sharks, behave as if dead as an anti-predator adaptation, as predators usually take only live prey. [ 15 ] In beetles, artificial selection experiments have shown that there is heritable variation for length of death-feigning.
Hyenas are known to have preyed on humans in prehistory: human hair has been found in fossilized hyena dung dating back 195,000 to 257,000 years. [70] Some paleontologists believe that competition and predation by cave hyenas ( Crocuta crocuta spelaea ) in Siberia was a significant factor in delaying human colonization of Alaska .
Anti-predator adaptations are mechanisms developed through evolution that assist prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators. Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle, namely by avoiding detection, warding off attack, fighting back, or escaping when caught.
In the largest species, the red fox, males weigh between 4.1 and 8.7 kg (9.0 and 19.2 lb), [7] while the smallest species, the fennec fox, weighs just 0.7 to 1.6 kg (1 + 1 ⁄ 2 to 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 lb). [8] Fox features typically include a triangular face, pointed ears, an elongated rostrum, and a bushy tail. They are digitigrade (meaning they walk ...
Typically, predators attempt to reduce communication to prey as this will generally reduce the effectiveness of their hunting. However, some forms of predator to prey communication occur in ways that change the behavior of the prey and make their capture easier, i.e. deception by the predator.
In size-selective predation, predators select prey of a certain size. [81] Large prey may prove troublesome for a predator, while small prey might prove hard to find and in any case provide less of a reward. This has led to a correlation between the size of predators and their prey. Size may also act as a refuge for large prey. For example ...
Vulpes is a genus of the sub-family Caninae.The members of this genus are colloquially referred to as true foxes, meaning they form a proper clade.The word "fox" occurs in the common names of all species of the genus, but also appears in the common names of other canid species.