22 May 2023

Arabian Red Fox – Dhahran Hills

When out walking in the rough scrubby area near to Dhahran Hills Waste-Water Lake in mid-May I came across an Arabian Red Fox. The fox was aware of me, and I spent a few minutes playing hide and seek with it, until I finally manage to get into a position to at least see its face properly. They are relatively common in Dhahran and can be seen most weeks of the year if you look in the right areas, particularly around Dhahran Hills gold course. The Red Fox is currently recognized as a single species and has the widest natural distribution of any terrestrial carnivore, possibly any terrestrial mammal (excluding humans). Its range spans approximately 70 million square kilometres encompassing much of Europe, Asia and North America and extending into North Africa, with an introduced population in Australia. The Arabian Red fox has very large ears for its size and is very thin and sandy coloured compared to the European Red Fox, and they look very different.