In southern Africa, bat-eared foxes live in pairs along with any pups in eastern Africa, a fox family may contain an adult male and up to three adult females with their pups. Wildlife care specialists say mealworms are their favorite-like fox candy!

These little canids sometimes travel up to 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) each night when looking for food.īat-eared foxes at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park eat a fortified meat-based commercial carnivore diet, dog kibble, a small mouse, mealworms, and crickets. Bat-eared foxes hang around hoofed mammals, because from those comes poop-and insects come buzzing around the droppings, providing a ready feast for the foxes. Once they locate the insects by sound, the foxes jump or dig quickly to catch them and crunch them up for a tasty, high-protein meal. Specialized teeth chew their creeping, crawling food, and those huge ears can listen for insects moving around.Ĭan you hear beetles crawling? Bat-eared foxes find prey by walking slowly with their nose close to the ground and ears cocked. While other members of the dog family have two upper and three lower molars on each side of the mouth, bat-eared foxes have three upper and four lower molars. But insects make up the main part of its diet.īat-eared foxes have more teeth (46 to 50) than most mammals, and that's what sets them apart from other foxes. Besides termites, which it licks up from the ground, the bat-eared fox eats dung beetles and their larvae, grasshoppers, scorpions, spiders, millipedes, rodents, lizards, fruits, and eggs. Yes, this fox eats insects, with termites making up to 70 percent of its diet. Predators that prey on bat-eared foxes include eagles, jackals, and hyenas. The den is a protected area where the group sleeps and also where the females give birth. They are even known to use old termite mounds as dens. The foxes' claws are made for digging, and they can create their own burrow or enlarge an empty one made by other wildlife. Bat-eared fox kit peeking out of den.Ī bat-eared fox family has several den holes in its territory, each with many entrances, tunnels, and chambers.

Bat-eared foxes usually live in groups of 2 to 5 individuals that have overlapping territories of almost 200 acres (80 hectares). Their wide habitat range matches that of their favorite food, the harvester termite. In the short-grass savannas and scrublands of eastern and southern Africa, it’s not unusual to find groups of bat-eared foxes occupying the same area, something uncommon among other wild dogs.

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