The so-called “white fox,” which is darker in color than Miley, is currently being reared at the St. Twiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. He is named Casper. I would have called him Blondie.
From The Express:
This rare “one in a million” white fox [kit] has been nursed back from the brink of death on a diet of dog food.
The four-week-old cub, named Casper after the all-white cartoon ghost, was found starving to death in Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe, Bucks.
He was cared for at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Bucks where staff now plan to give the cub a home for life.
“We managed to save him just in time and he’s doing great now,” said Les Stocker, founder of the hospital.
“Casper is so rare he has got to be one in a million.
“In 30 years, I’ve only ever heard of one other white fox and that had been shot and stuffed!
“I don’t think we’ll release him back into the wild – we don’t want him to get shot.
“We plan to build him a special fox enclosure as he really is special.”
Actually, there are white red foxes. There are several morphs that have been bred in fur farms. And some of these are actually spotted in much the same way dogs are. The Belyaev tame silver foxes also developed significant amounts of white on their coats.
None of these foxes look anything like this little golden one.
The British tend to get excited when their native red foxes come in an unusual color. That’s because virtually all foxes in Western Europe are the typical golden red phase. In North America, we have two other phases that can occur with relatively high frequency in the wild. The black or silver fox is just a color phase of the red, as is the cross fox phase, which is not a cross between a red fox and a Urocyon gray fox.
I don’t know why anyone would think this particular fox is white. It is far darker in color than many golden retrievers, which might be called “white” but really aren’t.
It is an interesting color, though.
***
A word about my nomenklature:
When it comes to Carnivora, only the offspring of Pantherine (big) cats and bears are cubs. Small cats have kittens. Cougars and cheetahs are technically “small cats,” and they have kittens. Clouded leopards are closely related to the Pantherine cats, and although smaller than cougars or cheetahs, they have cubs.
Dogs of the genus Canis and its allies, Cuon and Lycaon, have pups. The South American wild dogs are more closely related to this clade within Canidae, so they have pups, too. All other species in the Dog Family, which leaves only various things called foxes and the raccoon dog, have kits. They don’t have cubs.
All mustelids have kits, too. So badgers also kits.
In British English, it is more common to call young foxes and badgers ‘cubs,” which I’ve always found bizarre. To me, a cub would always refer to the spawn of something large and powerful.
But then again, the largest land carnivore in the UK is the European badger. The otter comes in at number two. Then the red fox.
In my country, the largest land carnivore is the Kodiak brown bear– but only if one considers the polar bear to be a marine mammal. In my state, the largest carnivore is also a bear. The largest black bears can be over 400 pounds in weight. (It’s also the largest animal in the state, but there are always mysterious wapiti that make an appearance every once in a while).
In case anyone wonders about the name of the wildlife hospital– “Tiggywinkle” was the name of a hedgehog in one of the British children’s stories, I think…title and author escape me at the moment. It has become a nickname for any hedgehog– a critter that looks as if it was designed by someone who makes children’s toys.
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is a children’s book written by Beatrix Potter in 1905.
Leucistic foxes are indeed very rare in the UK. Casper’s colouring (I have met him!) is more like that of a lilac-point siamese cat.
He would undoubtedly be killed by a trophy hunter were he to be released.
Love your blog!