Arctic Foxes
From Srafopedia
The Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus), also known as the polar fox, is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is common in all three tundra biomes. Although some authorities have suggested placing it in the genus Vulpes, it has long been considered the sole member of the genus Alopex. The Arctic fox has smaller, more rounded ears, a more rounded braincase, and a slightly shorter and broader muzzle than the red fox, Vulpes vulpes (Clutton-Brock et al. 1976). Its feet are furrier than those of other foxes. The Arctic fox occurs in two distinct colour morphs, "blue" and "white". Each colour phase also changes seasonally: "blue" moults from chocolate brown in summer to lighter brown tinged with a blue sheen in winter, and "white" is almost pure white in winter, and in summer grey to brownish-grey dorsally, and light grey to white below. Colour morphs are determined genetically at a single locus, white being recessive. The "blue" morph comprises less than 1% of the population through most of its continental range, but this proportion increases westwards in Alaska, and on islands. In Greenland roughly half of Arctic foxes are of the blue morph, and in Iceland most of them are blue.
The Arctic fox has evolved to live in the most frigid extremes on the planet. Among its adaptations for cold survival are its deep, thick fur, a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to keep them from freezing, and a good supply of body fat. The fox has a low surface-area-to-volume ratio as evidenced by its generally rounded body shape, short muzzle and legs, and short, thick ears. Since less of its surface area is exposed to the cold, less heat escapes the body.
--From Wikipedia
In His Dark Materials
In HDM, Arctic foxes are scavengers, both of food and of speech. They are capable of parroting back things they have heard. In TAS, Cliff-Ghasts capture an arctic fox, and it repeats what it overheard about Lee Scoresby's death. Then the ghasts kill it.
