This fox is having a snooze in the snow in Abruzzo, Italy. But when awake, red foxes, the most common fox species in the world, are cunning, fast and in the case of vixens, fiercely protective of their young. Fox kits are born blind, deaf, toothless and without the ability to thermoregulate. Vixens feed, protect and warm their young for months. Once the kits are old enough to survive on their own, vixens return to a solitary lifestyle.