Our fennec fox family became larger again.
The father fox that arrived from an Italian zoo and the female fox of Polish origin have been living in the cactus-filled Victoria House within the framework of the European Studbook Program since 2019, and they have had pups several times already.
The current pups were born with approx. 50 grams and they opened their eyes after 2 weeks, and until now, they have stayed in the hidden system of burrows, but now that they have started eating meat as feed, they are brave enough to come to the surface, so the luckier visitors can already see them.
The fennec foxes are real "cuteness bombs". Even though they are the smallest foxes in the world, their ears are huge, making them look like creatures from a fairy tale.
The entire body structure of the tiny animals - with a total body weight of 1 kg - is adapted to the desert environment. Their thick coat has excellent thermal insulation, so it protects the animals, that are hunting at night, from the cold nights in the desert. Moreover, the light colour of their fur not only provides an excellent hiding colour, but also effectively reflects the sunlight and protects the animals against any overheating during the day. Their furry paws muffle the sound of their footsteps, on the one hand, and protect them from the scorching heat of the daytime sand, on the other hand.
Their large ears serve to dissipate the heat, and help them determine the location of the prey moving under the sand; their diet mainly consists of smaller vertebrates and invertebrates, but they also eat eggs and berries.
Some believe that the Fox, the little prince's best friend, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous work, The Little Prince was not inspired by the European red fox, but by the fennec fox. At the end of 1935, the writer made an emergency landing in Egypt, in the Sahara Desert, with a friend, where he saw fennec foxes several times, and, in 1928, he wrote a letter from the Western Sahara to his sister, in which he even mentioned these animals.
