Bat-eared Fox: Profile and Information

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About 800,000 years ago, the Bat-eared Fox became a species of ancient canines vastly distributed in the mid-Pleistocene era.

Bat-eared foxes can only be found in the continent of Africa and are characterized by their bat-like ears that are oddly large.

This animal is known by several names, including Cape Fox, Long-eared Fox, Black-eared Fox, Delalande’s Fox, Motlosi, and Big-eared Fox.

Scientific Classification

Scientific Name: Otocyon megalotis
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Otocyon
Species: O. megalotis

Physical Description

Size: The average length, including the head and the body, is 55 centimeters.
Weight: They can weigh between 3 and 5.3 kg.
Ears: The most noticeable features are its black, pointed ears that can measure about 13 cm each.
Eyes: Bat-eared fox eyes are dark and almond-shaped.
Fur/hair/coat: The body hair combines copper-gray to tawny, while the legs and the tip of their thick, hairy tail are black.
Teeth: Each tooth of the Bat-Eared Fox is very short in length, unlike most other jackal or fox species.

Lifespan

In the wild, a bat-eared fox can live for about 13 years, whereas (in captivity), they can live longer. The maximum lifespan recorded was 17 years.

Distribution/Range

Bat-eared Foxes are shared in two different regions of Africa – the eastern and the southern parts that include Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, East Africa, Samburu, and Kilimanjaro.

Habitat

These foxes have mostly inhabited short-grass plains and places where small arthropods, including beetles and termites, are abundantly available.

Classification of Species

There are two identified subspecies of these foxes:

Otocyon megalotis megalotis that dominate the southern part of Africa
Otocyon megalotis virgatus is found in South Sudan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

Behavior

The Bat-eared Fox is naturally a nocturnal animal, with 85 percent of all its activities performed at nighttime. Having said that, this means that in South Africa, these animals are usually diurnal in winter and preponderantly active at night in summer.

In any given year in countries like South Africa, the summer months are more common.

A study made us understand that these fox families are very territorial. They would inhabit home ranges of about 0.25 to as much as 1.5 sq km and would mark their home range boundaries with their urine, like many other wolves, coyotes, dogs, and foxes. Nonetheless, the population density may get up to 10 foxes per sq km.

A single-family or group comprises a pair of both male and female adult Bat-Eared foxes. The couple usually lives in their single burrow while resting, sleeping, resting, playing, foraging, assisting, grooming, and protecting each other together.

Advantages of living in groups include;

Increased chances of success in foraging
Predators are easily detected
Opportunity for baby foxes to get intimate with their parents and master what to eat and ways to get them
There is power in numbers.

All members of a family, or even outsiders, communicate with one another using their tail and ear movements. They would also use a wide variety of sounds and soft whistles.

The Bat-Eared foxes have nine calls, seven of which are low-pitched and used by family members.

Diet

The Bat-eared Foxes are primarily insectivorous. These canids’ diet mostly includes small invertebrates like spiders, termites, scorpions, ants, and crickets. However, the Bat-eared Foxes will eat other little birds, desert truffles, mammals, and even reptiles.

Mating and Reproduction

How do the Bat-eared Foxes mate and reproduce?

These canines are generally monogamous, with a few exceptions observed with one male living with two female bat-eared foxes. Male Bat-eared Foxes would stay with their female partner(s) throughout the breeding season.

With their mating or breeding season falling between September and November, the Bat-eared foxes only breed around that time.

They are known to raise their young ones in dens they dug themselves. Female bat-eared foxes give birth to about 2 to 6 babies at once and commonly have a gestation period of 60 – 70 days.

The Life Cycle of the Bat-eared Fox

These exotic mammals are born without vision but naturally open their eyes when they are nine days old. When they are strong enough, around 17 days, they come out of their den.

Immediately after birth, the pups are sparsely covered with gray fur, and it takes about 4 to 5 weeks before they start growing adult colors. Papa’s bat-eared fox is more responsible than the mother.

Unlike the mothers, the father, Bat-Eared Fox, plays, grooms, and guards the baby even more. Father foxes stay to remain in the den with the babies after they are born. They provide security to the babies while the mothers search for food to help maintain milk production.

Baby foxes suckle their mother’s breasts for about 15 weeks before they forage with their parents for the first time. The male and female juvenile bat-eared foxes are fully grown after about 5 to 6 months, reaching full maturity at 8 to 9 months.

As soon as breeding season approaches, most of the fox’s siblings separate from each other, apart from some young females that may remain with their natal group.

Adaptations

Aside from being called the bat-eared foxes, these babies have an enhanced sense of hearing.

Here are the reasons why:

First, they can locate insects like ants and termites that emit sensitive sounds.
They inhabit places infested by cunning predators; hence, the necessity of such an outstanding sense of audibility. Because of their fantastic sense of hearing, they can pick up the sounds of enemies’ movements.

In addition to their behavioral adaptation, play among young bat-eared foxes shows similarities to escape behavior. This is solely because, when they are mature enough, they tend to express escape behavior instead of fighting behavior.

The bat-eared foxes possess extra teeth. Their dentition pattern is set so they can eat insects thoroughly. Their lower jawbone is specialized to help the foxes open and close their mouth quickly and chew insects before they can escape.

Predators

The primary predators of the bat-eared fox are hyenas, eagles, and jackals.

Conservation Status

Currently, there are no significant threats to the bat-eared foxes’ populations. The bat-eared Foxes have been categorized by the IUCN 3.1 as “Less Concern” under the Red List.

Interesting Facts

Despite their smaller size, the bat-eared foxes can outrun cheetahs and lions, which means they can run more than 70 miles per hour.
There is a record of communal nursing of a baby bat-eared fox.
In a zoo, a pair of these bat-eared foxes mated ten times daily for a week.
The species have been hunted by natives of Botswana and used commercially for their exotic fur.
Bat-eared foxes play a critical role in the ecosystem. They are essential to farmers in controlling the termite population.
The family bat-eared fox at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park shares a common enclosure with a pair of warthogs since the two animals are in the same wild habitat.
Due to the smallness of their teeth, some researchers mistook them for a canid species that isn’t closely related to foxes.

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