San Joaquin Kit Fox

San Joaquin Kit Fox Skull Replica measures 4.5 inches. San Joaquin Kit Fox Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Known as Kit Fox.

The San Joaquin Kit Fox is a fox species of North America. Its range is primarily in the Southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. It usually has a gray coat, with rusty tones, and a black tip to its tail.

Unlike the Gray Fox, it does not have a stripe along the length of its tail. Its color ranges from yellowish to gray, and the back is usually darker than the majority of its coat; its belly and inner ears are usually lighter. It has distinct dark patches around the nose.

The San Joaquin Kit Fox is mostly a nocturnal animal, but sometimes ventures out of its den during the day.

It usually goes out to hunt shortly after sunset, mostly eating small animals such as Kangaroo rats, Cottontail rabbits, Black-tailed jackrabbits, Meadow voles, hares, Prairie dogs, insects, lizards, snakes, fish, and ground-dwelling birds. It will scavenge carrion.

The San Joaquin Kit Fox experiences a very interesting, but rare, tooth malformation that causes Bigeminy: a heart rhythm problem. This is caused by the fusion of a maxillary third premolar tooth and an adjoining supernumerary tooth which makes a single tooth with two cusps and three roots.

San Joaquin Kit Fox favor arid climates, such as desert scrub, chaparral, and grasslands. Good examples of common habitats are sagebrush.

They can be found in urban and agricultural areas, too. They are found at elevations 1,300 to 6,200 ft. above sea level. The average lifespan of a wild San Joaquin Kit Fox is 5.5 years.

Dens are used during the year for daytime resting, escaping predators, avoiding extreme heat, preserving moisture, and carrying and rearing young.

Kit Foxes will dig their own dens, but they can also modify and use the burrows of badgers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and kangaroo rats.

Dens are spread across the home range, and an individual fox usually uses more than 11 dens in a given year. They normally rest in their dens during the day, but sometimes can emerge to bask and, when pups are young, to play.

Kit foxes are opportunistic omnivores and scavengers, possibly regulated by prey abundance, but primarily carnivorous.

In the Californian deserts, its primary prey is Merriam’s kangaroo rat. Other common prey species include lagomorphs, rodents and insects.

San Joaquin Kit Fox also consume birds, reptiles, carrion, fish, and rarely, plant material, such as tomatoes, cactus fruits and other fruits.

Male and female Kit foxes usually establish mating pairs during October and November, and they mate from December to January-February. Gestation lasts around 49 to 56 days, and the litters are born in February or March; litter size is usually four or five, and the sex ratio is roughly even.

They do not emerge from the den until they are at least four weeks old, and are weaned after about eight weeks and become independent at five to six months old.