**** Info via Hope for Wildlife
Meet the cat-like canid!
The Red Fox is one of the largest members of the Canidae family, but did you know that it shares a lot of characteristics with felines?
Animals sometimes evolve to fit niches in an environment where they have an advantage in competing for resources. Red Foxes, like cats are nocturnal – so they hunt at night. And they have adapted a lot of similarities to cats in order to be able to do so. They have vertical eyes slits like cats which help smaller animals accurately judge distance to ambush their prey, a slender-boned physique to stay low to the ground, long sensitive whiskers, and flexible paws with partially retractable front claws. Their hunting style is based on stealth and pounce – all of the things needed that help make their nocturnal hunting successful.
This type of convergent evolution means that even without a common ancestor, comparable adaptations arise when species occupy similar niches.
