Bat Eared Fox

The Ark In Space: The Bat-Eared Fox – Did You Ever See a Fox Fly?

Around 800,000 years ago a species developed on the African Savannah, a canid but quite unlike any other. It was small – with a head and body length of only around 55 cm, tawny furred and with black ears. It is the ears which really make this mostly nocturnal animal stand out.  On average they are a staggering 14 centimeters in length.  Proportionally they may not be as large as Dumbo’s but this is no fictional appendage. These ears are for real. The ears are a special adaptation.  Although the Bat-Eared Fox (Otocyon megalotis) will eat rodents, birds and eggs with the occasional fruit, it eats something quite unexpected.  Over eighty percent of its diet is made up of insects, especially termites.  The powerful ears are able to pick up the sound of termites within their nests. It will also follow swarms of locusts and feast on their over-abundance during certain parts of the year.  Bat-Eared Foxes are often seen following herds of antelopes and zebras, which seem particularly nonchalant about the presence of this member of the dog family with teeth and claws.  That is because the BEF (as we will call it from here on in) is not pursuing them in a hunt. They want a meal, certainly, but larger mammals are definitely not on the menu of the BEF. Instead the BEF is much more interested in the excrement of the antelopes and zebras.  Insects will often land on this in order to lay their eggs and it is these insects that the BEF is after. To us is may not seem particularly savoury but the BEF really couldn’t care less. Although it is not clear if they mate for life, the BEF will be monogamous and when they do not live simply as a couple they can be in an extended family unit of up to fifteen individuals.  Once the pups are born the male will look after the den.  This is so that the mother can go out and forage for insects in order to produce enough milk for the voracious pups. So, unlike the foxes of Western Europe, this variety (extremely distantly related) likes the company of others of its own species.  It is highly gregarious and will forage as a group, rarely moving more than two hundred meters of so away from another individual.  This is not only to deter and protect against their predators.  It also means that they can concentrate on often time dependant insect patches and move on to another as a group. They do have a few enemies, to say the least.

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