How do rare 'blue' Arctic foxes live on the Commander Islands?
The remote Commander Islands in the Bering Sea are home to very rare Arctic foxes, which are listed in the Red Book of Russia.
They are called ‘blue’, because, in winter and summer, they wear a coat of gray-brown color with blue undertones. Unlike ordinary Arctic foxes that live above the Arctic Circle, they do not change their fur coat to white in winter.
There, they live on the Medny and Bering islands. Medny is almost one and a half times larger than its neighbor, but, in general, they are very similar. Scientists estimate the number of adult Arctic foxes on Bering Island at 400-500 and on Medny Island – 100-120.
Like ordinary Arctic foxes, the ‘blue’ subspecies builds an extensive network of dens and, when winter comes, they make homes in the snow.
Russian scientists first described these island foxes in the middle of the 17th century and they noted that they were absolutely unafraid of humans. Today, nothing has changed: as soon as an Arctic fox realizes that people have something tasty to eat, it immediately makes contact.
