Pacitalian blue fox

Pacitalian blue fox
Canus vulpazuli

A vixen in her den
Scientific classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Carnivora
Family	Canidae
Genus	Vulpes
Species	Canus vulpazuli
Conservation status
Low risk

The Pacitalian blue fox (Canus vulpazuli) is one member of 23 species of small omnivorous canids. It serves as the national animal of Pacitalia and is the defining feature on the reverse side of the ten douro banknote. It is markedly more common than the endangered Beracantoran (High-Range) Red Fox from Beracanto province in central Pacitalia, whose numbers are only around 3-4% of the estimated 3.8 million blue foxes living in the country.

Blue fox terminology is different from that used for most canids. Male foxes are known as dogs or tods, females are referred to as vixens, and their young are called kits or cubs, as well as pups. A group of foxes is a skulk.

Historical and cultural value

Generally, the presence of foxes in Pacitalia has led to their appearance in the popular culture and folklore of the country dating back nearly 1700 years to the time of the Athalonium and Pacis Nova city-states. Blue foxes have had a strong cultural impact on Pacitalia and have even somewhat influenced the governments of the past and present, as Pacitalia sees cunning and diplomacy as better personal qualities than a thirst for war, such as is in Pacitalia's past and other nations' present.

The city-states (20? - 285 AD)

After the Romans' sailing expedition had landed them south of present-day Murano in Caribero province, they established the port city of Pacis Nova. Blue foxes did not inhabit this wetter, moist land of east-northeast Pacitalia, but instead made their dens and showed signs of habitation moreso in the southeast near the eventual rival city-state of Athalonium (today: Athalone). This is a principal reason as to why most of the Athalonians' pottery, murals, sculptures, and even the current city flag feature this animal prominently.

In this era of early Pacitalian history, blue foxes were believed to carry wisdom, some type of unexplained healing powers towards themselves and humans, and transcendent omnipotence that the Athalonians and Pacinovans only believed could be concurrent with the rough equivalent of a Roman god of wisdom, Minerva. This may have held true on the accounts of Robirius Romulus Venetius (175-224) of Athalonium, who gave the following account:

I fell off the large tree and to the ground. I felt a bone snap in my lower leg, and rolled over to vomit from the flash of pain that overcame me. When I awoke from my stupor of unconscious delirium, I found myself face to face with a beautiful creature, strikingly mature, swift, cunning and graceful. The fur of the animal was swimming in azure and periwinkle. I tried to get up but the pain was still there in my leg. Suddenly, the animal spoke to me.

"I am a fox," it said to me - though it didn't actually speak. It seemed to be communicating by thinking to me. "I will help you recover, but you must do something for me in return."

I was grateful to have this help, and was obliged to reply with a yes.

"You must travel on foot to Dobragantium [note: about 75km northwest of Athalonium] ," the fox said. "When you arrive, you must cultivate the date palms, and when you have done this successfully, you will find your life's love in female form. In the meantime, for doing this tiring journey, I will heal your bones."

I thanked the fox, and agreed to the proposal. He began to lick my leg flesh and I watched in shock and surprise as the wound and bone began to return to their normal form. All seemed in order, and he wished me luck as a result. And quick as a flash, he had gone. He reminded me much of Minerva, with his infinite wisdom and his ability to foretell. Not only was he correct about my success in finding Dobragantium, he also rightly predicted the cultivations - Athalonium had its best date supply in years, and I wed Catalinius Rosannium Carpathus in November.

Occidoromanum (285 - 656 AD) and Terra Occidentalia (656 - 1284 AD)

As the city-states merged into one larger and infinitely powerful nation to rival their only real opponent, the Mayans, the blue fox became an even more sacred animal. It was the symbol of victory in battle, and as the Occidoromans successfully beat back the Mayans at the battles of Capus-Carnimum (342), Chichen Itza (356), Raputa-Logorinus (416) and Samusoria (552), they built more shrines, temples and sanctuaries to the "holiness" of what they referred to as the Vulpazuli (literally: blue fox). The sacred stature of the blue fox continued through to the Middle Ages, when, in 1221, Pacitalia was born as a loose collection of provinciamu, and the Pacitalian language began to derive itself out of the contemporary Latin that had existed in the region for nearly 1200 years.

Pacitalia (1284 - present)

Since the inception of Pacitalia, and agglomeration into an official country in 1503, the blue fox has been an enormous part of Pacitalian literature, folklore, folk songs, art, pottery and sculpture, and is even the team nickname for Pacitalia's national senior men's, senior women's and Under-21 football (soccer) squads. The blue fox was named the official national animal in 1879.

Mayan / Aztec culture

The blue fox did not have much meaning in the Native culture, and then had even less meaning after the Occidoromans defeated them four times in 210 years, openly using the blue fox as their symbol of victory in battle. There are a few stone tablets recovered from the Mayan historical sites of Xpu-Ha and Xel-Ha, south of Cancona, that do allude to the blue fox as a noticeable animal in that period, but, of course, they did not want to associate themselves with something the enemy did.

Families in Pacitalia with blue fox blood

As odd as this sounds, there is definite truth to the story that there are a few families in Pacitalia who have blue fox blood (in varying quantities) running through their veins because of bites to their historical ancestors which accidentally transferred the fox's blood into the human bloodstream or from ceremonial blood-mixing, the latter of which was common in the Terra Occidentalia age in about the 10th century (900-999 AD), as certain people believed that mixing some blue fox blood in their veins would make them wiser and significantly omnipotent. There is, no credibility or truth, however, to the old wives' tale that male humans copulated with female foxes, and thusly created an isolated hybrid race of about 40 so-called "foxpeople" starting in that same century.

It is important to note that only a select few families have this genetic trait: genealogists and biologists estimate there are only 76 or 77 families in Pacitalia like this. Four prime examples of large and well-known families with blue fox blood are:

• The Ambrosanto family - Leading Pacitalian mineral water exporter Giacomo Ambrosanto received a bite on his left index finger in 1930 while supervising the construction of a new bottling plant near Sierra Tumerica. All his descendants have tested positive for blue fox blood.
• The Ell family - Randolpho Cazuno Ell (male) was bitten in 1895, and his great-grandson, Timothy (Timotaio) is the current Prime Minister of Pacitalia. Timothy has had a blood test, which has confirmed the presence of canid hemoglobin and DNA in his blood and tissue, at a level of about 1.5% of his total blood volume. Ell does not show any canid facial or bodily characteristics, nor does his industrialist father, Marko (the side from which the blood was passed down). There are 61 living members of Timothy Ell's branch of his family, and they have all tested positive for blue fox DNA and hemoglobin.
• The Mariso-Lamura family - This double-barrelled aristocratic family had two bites to its name, in 1914 and 1915. Since then, all but one of the new additions to this large family have tested positive for the trait.
• The Sorinalti family - Androgynum Sorinalti (female), the nine-year-old daughter of long-deceased Athalone mayor Ragunino Sorinalti, was bitten in 1879 when, according to their butler, she was poking a sleeping blue fox with a fallen branch. Like the Ells, all of the Sorinaltis born since Androgynum (excluding those related by marriage and those of Androgynum's sisters and brothers) consistently test positive for the DNA and hemoglobin of the Canus vulpazuli.
• The Vemaruno family - Unlike the other 76 families, the Vemaruno family appears special as it is the only known family with the characteristic to see this such trait disappearing from the genetic structure of the family's DNA. Since Dr. Paolo Vero Vemaruno was bitten in 1763, the quantity of blue fox blood in each subsequent family member's total volume has steadily decreased, and the latest proof of that is Cassius Vemaruno, born in June 2005, who had absolutely no blue fox DNA or hemoglobin in his body.

Physical description

Blue foxes are most commonly a darker cerulean-like blue, with white, gray and blackish underbellies, black ear tips and legs, and a medium-length, furry tail that displays a distinctive black tip. The "blue" tone, however, may vary from even a funny-looking sky blue to a dark navy, and in fact can be brindled or agouti, with bands of blue, black, charcoal and white on each individual hair when seen close up. In the wild, two other color phases are also seen: silver and indigo. "Domesticated" or farmed stock may be almost any shade of blue, including spotted, or "marbled" varieties, depending on where from the wild the fox's genes lay claim.

Their eyes are a striking ice blue and have distinctive elliptical pupils. The blue fox is extremely agile for a canid and has been referred to as "the cheetah canid". Their medium-length bushy tails with distinctive black tips provide balance for acrobatic leaps and bounds.

Red foxes are known to be much lighter than blue foxes, which may reach an adult weight of 4.5 – 5.9 kg. They vary greatly in size, with blue foxes in the eastern provinces (Caribero, Fentomeria and Gulfera) being larger, on average, than those in the central provinces (Beracanto, Pomentane and Antigonia, for example).

During the fall and winter, despite the still relatively warm climate (temperatures in the mid 20*C range), blue foxes will grow more fur. This so-called 'winter fur' keeps the animal warm in the colder environment. The foxes shed this fur at the onset of spring, reverting back to the short fur for the duration of the summer.

Habitat and diet

Blue foxes are found in a variety of biomes, from prairies and scrubland to tropical rainforest settings. They are most suited to the lower latitudes and moist climates of Caribero and Gulfera provinces, but do venture considerably far north, competing for land with the endangered high-range red fox in Margheria and Ciocanto provinces. Blue foxes have also become a familiar sight in suburban and even urban environments, sharing territory with the much maligned raccoon, but helping to ward off the nasty rodent through predatory measures. It is important to note that blue foxes are naturally immune to the rabies virus, so even if you are bitten by one (which is rare in itself), you cannot contract this fatal disease.

Blue foxes eat rodents, insects, fruits, worms, eggs and other small animals. They have an irregular 46 teeth, which are very powerful, that they use to catch their food. The foxes regularly consume from 0.5–1 kilograms (1–2 pounds) of food per day, above normal for a canid, but still on the level when it comes to the amount of movement blue foxes undertake in one average day - 25-30km.

Behaviour

Living as they do in a wide variety of habitats, blue foxes display a wide variety of behaviours. In La Biologa e Conservazione di Canusora Naturale (Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids), Drs. Caranto Zorustali-Zubiri and Marcuso Poragiorno state that two populations of blue foxes may be behaviourally as different as two species.

Being primarily crepuscular with a tendency to becoming nocturnal in areas of great human interference, blue foxes are most active in late evening, at night and at twilight. They are generally solitary hunters. If a fox catches more food than it can eat, it will bury, or cache, the extra food for later.

In general, each fox claims its own territory; foxes pair up only in winter and in summer they forage alone. Several dens are utilised within the territories that blue foxes take up. Dens may be claimed from previous residents such as red foxes or pazumari (Pacitalian watersource lynx), or created anew from heavy days-long digging. Like the red fox, a larger main den is used for winter living, birthing and rearing of young; smaller dens are dispersed throughout the territory for emergency and food storage purposes. A series of tunnels often connects them with the main den.

Socially, foxes communicate with body language and a variety of vocalizations. Their vocal range is quite large and their noises vary from a distinctive three-yip "lost call" that sounds like a human whistle to a shriek reminiscent of a human scream. They also communicate with scent, marking food and territorial boundary lines with urine and feces.

Reproduction

The blue fox has a breeding period that lasts around three months of the year. Usually this is the autumn months of September through November, so that the young are birthed in the cooler months of January and February, and subsequently reared without the distractions of warmer climate and the desire to explore outside the den. Females have an estrous period of about one week and ovulation may or may not be spontaneous. Male-female copulation lasts about 20 seconds.

Males are responsible for retrieving food for the young and the mother, if they do not, they may be disowned in favour of the female's second choice for mate, who becomes a sort of adoptive father, or stepfather to the kits (between five and ten kits can be born in one go). The female may then have more young with this other mate. Fox kits take about two weeks to open their eyes, and venture out of their dens for the first time about five to six weeks after birth.

The average lifespan of a blue fox is 14 years, and continuance of the hereditary line of the fox must take place through reproductive methods before the fox turns 10, as menopause and testicular degeneration set in, in female and male foxes, respectively.