00:00We're here at the San Diego Zoo with our two arctic foxes Isaac and Kinnick. Both our fox
00:08are named with Inuit words. Isaac meaning smoke and she's a blue-faced arctic fox and Kinnick
00:16meaning frost and he is our beautiful white male. Their similarities are they are very smart animals,
00:23they're curious about everything, but Kinnick is very bold. He is not frightened of anything,
00:30he's go get them, he loves playing, loves interacting. Isaac is much more shy although
00:36she's curious but she'll back off first and she's probably the most difficult for keepers to get to
00:42know. Arctic fox in the wild eat a diet that mainly consists of bulls and lemmings and other rodents
00:48that live in the tundra area of the arctic. They will eat other vegetation if they need to. Here at
00:53the zoo we give them a beef-based diet along with some different dog chows and whole bones that
00:58they love to gnaw and chew on. Plus of course crickets from time to time. Both Isaac and Kinnick are three
01:04years old. They will be turning four this spring. They are considered to be fully adult arctic fox.
01:11In the wild arctic fox barely live beyond three years of age. In zoos luckily they do have a much
01:17longer life expectancy so we expect to have these guys here for quite a bit longer. Since we do have
01:23two adult fox people often ask are we going to breed them and if they would like to they can.
01:29Female fox reach sexual maturity before their first birthday so it is possible that in the future we
01:35might have a litter of kids. Currently arctic fox are not considered endangered but we know that that
01:42status will change because of over hunting there are areas where arctic fox populations have not
01:48recovered but the greatest threat right now is the warming of the arctic which threatens some of their food
01:53sources and also as the arctic warms red fox move in and they're a much more aggressive species and will
01:59push arctic fox out. It is a little challenging in our temperate san diego climate to help arctic fox
02:06because fox have the greatest insulated properties of any fur of any mammal so we do have air-conditioned
02:13bedrooms for them that they can go into when it is too warm for them but we have lots of shade and
02:19misters and things like that that keep it cool on exhibit for them as well. Typically if you come to
02:24the zoo during the day the time that they're most active is first thing in the morning and later in the
02:29evening and usually during the day they're sleeping but they love to dig they love to carry things around
02:38and you can often see them poking their heads out of holes that they've just dug.
02:42It's great to watch the fox interact with our guests and be curious about them and enjoy our guests as
02:51much as our guests are enjoying them.
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