NWF may modify the Contest Entry Period in its sole discretion. CONTEST ENTRY PERIOD: The CONTEST opens at 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 3/15/21, and closes on April 4, 2021, at 11:59 pm EST.NWF reserves the right to verify, in its sole judgment, entrant eligibility. legal residents at least thirteen (13) years of age (“Entrants”), all entrants under the age of 13 will need parental approval before submitting, excluding residents of except employees and Board Members of NWF, their immediate families and individuals living in the same household as such employees and Board Members. WHO IS ELIGIBLE: The CONTEST is open to all U.S.THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION RANGER RICK FINAL FUR CHALLENGE CONTEST (“the CONTEST) IS SPONSORED AND ADMINISTERED BY NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION (“NWF”), A 501(C)(3) ORGANIZATION WITH A CHARITABLE MISSION OF UNITING ALL AMERICANS TO ENSURE WILDLIFE THRIVE IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD WITH ITS PRINCIPLE PLACE OF BUSINESS AT 11100 WILDLIFE CENTER DRIVE, RESTON, VIRGINIA 20190īY ENTERING THIS COMPETITION, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS: NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION RANGER RICK FINAL FUR CHALLENGE OFFICIAL CONTEST INFORMATION AND RULES Please read carefully! (Click on each image above for a closer view of the story.) “Fox for All Seasons” originally appeared in the October 2013 issue of Ranger Rick magazine. And these young foxes must be ready to go off and survive on their own-anytime, anywhere. In just a few short months, it will be fall again. The little foxes need all the help they can get. Older brothers and sisters may help feed and care for the kits, too. And they stalk and wrestle with their littermates. They practice on small animals brought by their parents. Young kits need to become top-notch hunters-fast. Mom still nurses them, but they can eat bits of meat, too. Snug inside her den, she nurses them and keeps them warm.īy the end of that time, the babies’ eyes have opened, they can hear, and they have sharp little teeth. Mom stays with the kits around the clock for the next two to three weeks. They can’t hear, can’t see, and don’t have any teeth. When they are born, the kits are about as long as dollar bills and completely helpless. She gives birth to a litter of four to six kits, or baby foxes. By spring, Mom huddles down in an underground den. It can hear a mouse squeaking from as far away as the length of a football field! And when it hears that squeak or a rustling in leaves or tiny footsteps under snow, it leaps into action! So even though there isn’t as much food around, a red fox will find whatever food there is.įor a red fox, spring means one thing: babies! Mom and Dad Fox mate in late winter. Good thing that a red fox has super-sharp hearing. An in some places, many of those prey animals are hard to find during the winter. Small animals such as mice, ground squirrels, birds, and lizards make up most of a red fox’s diet. Wrapped in its big, bushy tail, the fox stays nice and warm-even when it’s completely covered by snow.įinding food is a bigger problem. Instead of hiding out in a den, a red fox will usually just curl up right out in the open. In cold places, red foxes grow even longer, thicker winter coats. That’s because, even for a master hunter such as a fox, winter can mean slim pickings. The babies have grown up and are on their own. In fall, a red fox hangs out mostly alone. And its thick, soft coat keeps it plenty warm. It likes to hunt before sunrise and after sunset, anyway. The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting cooler. You could call them the anytime, anywhere foxes. And they seem to thrive in all kinds of weather. But red foxes are found in more places than any other. There are 12 different kinds of foxes living in many parts of the world. But a red fox is also at home in leafy woods, on a frozen tundra-even in a big city in the middle of summer! This magnificent red fox looks perfectly at home in a golden fall meadow.