Okay, at first I thought this was just funny, but turns out it’s completely incredible.
The Discovery Channel posted a video of a red fox hunting for field mice in the frozen Dakota Black Hills. With nearly 3 feet of snow covering the ground, it seems highly unlikely that they’d be able to catch anything underneath except for pure blind luck.
But apparently that’s not the case.
Foxes have incredible hearing, which they use to pin point the location of the tiniest scampering under the snow, but that’s not the only tool in their bag.
Scientists believe that red foxes are also able to tune into the magnetic fields of the Earth and use that to their advantage when looking for a meal. How exactly they do this is still unknown, but according to the video, when a fox faces north, it has a 75% success rate, compared to a near zero when facing any other direction.
That’s just absolutely mind blowing.
Okay, now to the funny part…
In order to still have the element of surprise on their side, foxes don’t simply bury their heads in the snow when they think they have prey in sight. Instead, they leap high in the air, up to 3 feet, and torpedo down nose first.
It’s undeniably a little silly, especially when their hind legs start folding back toward their head like a pike position in diving, but it’s also very impressive, especially when they return to the surface with a field mouse in their teeth.
Put some respect on the red fox name.
