Categories
Animal Age

How old does a Swift fox get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Swift fox reaches?

An adult Swift fox (Vulpes velox) usually gets as old as 20 years.

Swift foxs are around 53 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 40 grams (0.09 lbs) and measure 8.3 cm (0′ 4″). As a member of the Canidae family (genus: Vulpes), their offspring is 4 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 50.5 cm (1′ 8″).

As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

A Swift fox gets as old as 20 years

The swift fox (Vulpes velox) is a small light orange-tan fox around the size of a domestic cat found in the western grasslands of North America, such as Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It also lives in southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada, where it was previously extirpated. It is closely related to the kit fox and the two species are sometimes known as subspecies of Vulpes velox because hybrids of the two species occur naturally where their ranges overlap.The swift fox lives primarily in short-grass prairies and deserts. It became nearly extinct in the 1930s as a result of predator control programs, but was successfully reintroduced later. Currently, the conservation status of the species is considered by the IUCN as Least Concern owing to stable populations elsewhere.Like most canids, the swift fox is an omnivore, and its diet includes grasses and fruits as well as small mammals, carrion, and insects. In the wild, its lifespan is three to six years, and it breeds once annually, from late December to March, depending on the geographic region. Pups are born anywhere from March to mid-May, and are weaned at six to seven weeks old.The swift fox is closely related genetically to the kit fox (Vulpes macrotis), but occupies a different geographical range. The two have historically been regarded as different species for reasons basically related to size: the kit fox is slightly smaller than the swift fox, and the former has a narrower snout. However, hybrids between the two occur naturally where their ranges overlap, and some mammalogists classify the two as subspecies of a single species, usually treated as Vulpes velox (with the swift fox being described as V. velox velox and the kit fox as V. velox macrotis). The molecular genetics evidence is not conclusive, however, and some of those who have used it continue to treat the swift fox and kit fox as separate species.

Animals of the same family as a Swift fox

Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Canidae):

Animals that reach the same age as Swift fox

With an average age of 20 years, Swift fox are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Swift fox

The same number of babies at once (4) are born by:

Weighting as much as Swift fox

A fully grown Swift fox reaches around 2.11 kg (4.66 lbs). So do these animals:

Animals as big as a Swift fox

Those animals grow as big as a Swift fox: