Five and a half million square miles of sand. The size of China. The Sahara smothers six percent of the world’s land. Yet this vast, unforgiving place is home to the world’s smallest wild dog, the fennec fox. Barely the size of a walking boot, this tiny fox goes head-to-head with the desert every day. The Sahara is filled with millions upon millions of grains of sand, and every grain acts as a radiator. Sand absorbs heat, and the hotter it gets, the more heat it radiates. The temperature here spirals to over 100 degrees. In such sizzling conditions, the fennec’s size matters. A small body can shed heat faster than a large one, and to lose heat even faster, the fennec’s ears act like sophisticated air conditioning units. The network of veins cools the blood to lower the temperature. Despite such capable cooling, not even a fennec can endure the heat of the Saharan Sun. There’s no shade. But fennecs are masters of their environment. Moisture concentrates at the foot of the dunes, so the sand here is firm enough to dig a burrow. Home sweet home for a pair of fennecs. They have shelter from the worst of the heat, but they must eventually leave the safety of their den to find food. And this enormous desert is a dangerous place for a tiny, wild dog. An unwary fennec is small enough to be caught by feral dogs and even eagle owls. But their camouflaged coats make them less conspicuous. In the fading light of dusk, she makes a run for it. Zig-zagging and jumping, she uses the dunes to mask her location. The grains of sand are constantly shifting, but the pads on her feet… are furry for maximum traction. Few can keep tabs on her whereabouts.
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