Can a fox be fat or obese?

Question

I saw a fox recently near my countryhouse, and noticed that it had very large, protruding belly, and was generally very thick. But they have cubs much earlier, so it couldn't be pregnant. What could it be, in your opinion?

Answer 1

Any animal can be fat or obese.

Normally wild animals aren't because they have to compete for food. However, if the hunting in your area is very good then a fat fox could be the result.

Humans, like most large mammals evolved to survive with one or less meals per day. The 3 meals a day diet we are on is an artifact of our civilization. Doctors have proved that rats can do better on 1/3 of the calories they normally take in. Of course these are rats in captivity who normally receive regular, daily feedings.

An animal like the shrew has a metabolism that requires constant food if it doesn’t eat every day it will starve to death. Humans can go for weeks without eating and not suffer any real damage. Our bodies evolved to put on fat in case of situations like this. In the case of your fox he will probably eat less over the next few days and when the winter comes he will need that fat as game becomes scarce and his food supply drops. Prey like squirrels are trying to fatten up for their winter hibernation.

The problem with humans is that our bodies haven’t evolved much since the days of cave men. The human body has pretty much the same design. The only major change has been an increase in height, probably due to the better diet. Our bodies are still trying to squirrel away any extra food as fat to be ready for the lean times, even though the lean times no longer are here. The body is designed to take on fat and once a fat cell is formed it never goes away, it has to be removed (liposuction). This is one reason why it is so easy for previously fat people to re-gain a lot of weight.

When our calorie reduction is reduced our bodies go into alert mode to conserve calories. This happens during times of starvation or when we try to diet. That’s why dieting can be very difficult, our bodies are designed against it.

Your fox has the same basic design as you do, at least where the fat cells are concerned. However, the chances of your fox having to go without food are much more likely than they are for you. Also if your fox is female then she has to feed her young. When women get pregnant they usually retain some of the pregnancy weight gain. One reason for this is to give them an ample supply of reserves to feed their young. Since some women don’t breast feed they may have more weight to take off. Again the same situation is true with your fox, but the chances are more likely that she will have to face lean times and may have to sacrifice her dinner and her weight gain to help her young.

Polar bears don’t hibernate; they do reduce their activity a lot. When a female polar bear gives birth usually it is during the winter. The mother has to rely on the fat reserves she has built up to feed her young. If she hasn’t enough fat reserves then both will suffer. This could lead to the extinction of the polar bear species.

Insects have a problem with being obese. Since they use exoskeletons there is little room to pack away extra weight so they depend on eating a lot of small meals regularly. If not then they starve. A few crumbs could be enough to keep an ant happy, so insects don’t have a lot of problems finding food. Insects can also slow down their metabolism, or hibernate, or flee the winter to avoid lean times. It all depends on which survival mode they evolved.

Reptiles tend to eat a large meal and then slow down their metabolism to digest it and make it last. In times of breeding, or when stressed they have these reserves to draw on, but if they don’t need to then they just wait. This can be a good strategy if dinner isn’t regularly available. The reason why reptiles are cold blooded is that they don’t have to use extra metabolic energy to keep their internal temperature up. Mammals require more food because we do have to keep our internal temperature up to keep us operating at peak efficiency. Our survival strategy requires that we eat more food, but it lets us range in wider areas. After all you don’t see any snakes at the poles, reptiles can’t survive there.

Answer 2

it could be sick which may mak the animal bloated and hav a protruding belly. it may have been that some one took care of this animal and overfed it. its hard to say without seeing the fox. but any animal can be overweight but it is unlikely that a wild animal is over weight because they are constantly on the move and don't eat as often as a domestic animal