Tibetan Fox Profile

Probably the coolest thing about ecology is that it can be entirely summed up as a network of mirrors. Everything about each organism is a reflection of everything around it. For example, gazelles run fast because cheetahs run fast; cheetahs are spotted because the dappled light through the savanna grass is spotted. You can infer so much about an animal’s environment by understanding why it looks or behaves the way it does.

And, as we’ll see, there’s something about hunting Pikas in the Tibetan plateau that makes an animal look like Johnny Cash’s space coyote cameo in The Simpsons.

Tibetan Fox Facts Overview

Tibetan foxes are true foxes, both in taxonomic terms and by way of being badass survivors in hostile environments. Unlike their lowland cousins, they are particularly specialised in hunting a single prey species, and this is what makes them look so unusual. 

Being such high altitude specialists, they dominate niches that humans can’t, and this means they’re still doing pretty well as a species.

Interesting Tibetan Fox Facts

1. They’re foxes

This one seems like an obvious push to reach the word count, but so many animals with “Fox” in the name are not in fact true foxes. Darwin’s Fox, the Andean Fox, Fox Mulder, and plenty of others, as crafty as they are, are not in the true fox genus.

True foxes are in the dog family, and all canids around today are in the Caninae subfamily, but this subfamily is split into two tribes: the Canini and the Vulpini. Dogs and wolves, and Jackals fit into the former, and the fox-like animals into the latter.

Vulpini does indeed contain all the aforementioned “Foxes” (except Mulder), but the true foxes are those in the genus Vulpes.

The red, and therefore best, fox is Vulpes vulpes, a naming condition known as tautonymy, and a fine specimen of a fox, in that it is fast, smart, adorable and absolutely thriving in the post-apocalyptic hellholes of our concrete jungles. This member of the genus is a true generalist predator/scavenger, but the Tibetan fox, Vulpes ferrilata, has gone the other route.

2. They’re highly specialised

Tibetan foxes have forgone the opportunity to do many things quite well and have instead chosen to do just one thing, better than anybody else.

They are top predators in the Tibetan Plateau, and at up to 5,300 metres altitude, they are carved by the bitter winds and the temperatures that drop to -40 Celsius. As such, they have short ears for conserving body heat, a dense, woolly coat, and a head that has been described as “An extreme exaggeration of the skull of Vulpes vulpes.” ¹

And this weird head is what makes the Tibetan fox one of the most distinguishable animals on the internet.

3. They’re obligate predators of pikas

In zoology, we talk about diets with terms like facultative or obligate to differentiate whether something eats stuff because it can, or because it absolutely must. Dogs are facultative predators, and can (with some serious attention to supplementation) in fact thrive even on a vegan diet, just as humans can (In fact, there is some research to suggest a vegan diet is healthier for dogs).

Cats, on the other hand, as obligate carnivores, absolutely cannot. They need meat to function and are so reliant on it, that without proper food, they can suffer kidney damage in a matter of just two or three days.

Foxes generally fall somewhere between the two, being predominantly predators, but also being able to eat almost anything meaty and thrive on a variety of diets as generalist predators and facultative carnivores. But the Tibetan fox is an exception to this trend.

Not only does it appear to be an obligate carnivore, it’s an obligate carnivore of a single animal – one of the weirdest mammals on the plateau: the “Magic Rabbit”, or Pika.

Research suggests that where there are no pikas, there can be no Tibetan foxes, and this is strong evidence of an obligate predatory relationship! Such a relationship means that the Tibetan fox is one of the most specialised of any fox, and this explains its no-nonsense facial expressions. ²

4. That’s why they look funny

Analysis of fox poop from within Qinghai Province, China, showed 99% of Tibetan fox scats with Pika remains in them. 73% of them had only pika, and the rest contained bits of other animals, too.

So, this is clearly a Pika specialist, and as Anime has always shown, to catch a Pika, you have to have a distinctive, cartoonish look.

But how does all this work? As we mentioned in the intro, organisms are a reflection of their surroundings. Generalists can be considered to have a multitude of low-resolution mirrors, and as we progress along the spectrum towards specialities, the mirrors get larger and sharper. The Tibetan fox’s one big mirror is its weird face, which sits on a highly specialised skull, designed specifically for killing pikas.

The skull is the most specialised for carnivory of any known true fox, with exceptionally long canine teeth and a concave forehead. It has a longer, narrower nose, and the Zygomatic arches on the sides of the skull are narrower, and therefore more adapted to snapping than to crushing.

All of this contributes to a natural-born Pika killer, and a face that looks like it’s tired of your nonsense. ³

5. They “collaborate”

Even a specialist can call for support, and there are some claims that this species works alongside brown bears to hunt, with the bear providing the brute force and digging capabilities needed to break the frozen earth, and the fox providing… well, that’s harder to say.

Being a fox, it’s just as, if not more likely, the fox simply waits for the bear to dig out the pika and then steals the kill.

This species is known to collaborate between mates, and will share kills between the breeding pairs, but ⁴

6. They’re doing great!

While the red fox has its incredible adaptability to rely upon, the Tibetan fox is so specialised that it would likely disappear quite quickly if it were ever forced to live alongside humans. Thankfully, its particular specialisation allows it to thrive in very much the regions that humans don’t.

With ranges that reach over 5,000 metres up, it’s well into the altitude sickness zone for humans, and above what most of us would consider real estate, or even prime grazing habitats, and so, while it’s hunted by humans where they can find it, the Tibetan fox is well out of the way of human intervention, and is, therefore, of no conservation concern whatsoever, with no major threats to this species known. ⁵

Tibetan Fox Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. Reginald Innes Pocock (1957), “Fauna of British India. Mammals volume 2”, Fauna of British India. Mammals volume 2.
2. Harris et. al (2014), “Evidence that the Tibetan fox is an obligate predator of the plateau pika: conservation implications ”, Journal of Mammalogy.
3. Reginald Innes Pocock (1957), “Fauna of British India. Mammals volume 2”, Fauna of British India. Mammals volume 2.
4. Harris et. al (2008), “Notes on the biology of the Tibetan fox”, ResearchGate.
5. (2014), “Tibetan Fox”,ICUN Red List.