What the Internet Will Tell You About the Canadian Marble Fox

The Canadian marble fox, also called the Arctic marble fox, is a beautiful animal. It's also somewhat confusing. I've found a source that says it's a rare subspecies of the red fox found in the wild. Almost all other sources tell me it is not a naturally occurring fox, but is the result of selectively breeding red foxes for the color variation. Or a hybrid that's the result of breeding red foxes with Arctic foxes. Note that red foxes and silver foxes are the same species with varying colors; the Arctic fox is different. Some sources say the mutation that was then selectively bred originated in Norway in 1945, so Canadian marble foxes aren't necessarily Canadian, either. There's also some talk about these deliberately-bred foxes living in the wild after escaping from captivity in a fur farm, breeding facility, or a household that kept them as pets. I have no idea how true that is, but all those places are not where a fox needs to be. In fact, the fox pictured above is not a fox at all, but a plush doll! It was made by MalinaToys. Here is a more representative picture.



This one looks like a fox, and nothing like a cat. Still beautiful, and still better off in the wild than at a fur farm or in a family living room. Too bad they lack the perfect camouflage natural selection gave other foxes. (Thanks WTM!)


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There is one one hit for "Canadian marble fox" on Google Scholar, which tells me it's not a scientifically recognized subspecies. That one hit is to https://pethelpful.com/exotic-pets/Russian-Pet-Domesticated-Foxes which says "This is nothing more than a domesticated red fox that has a "marble" fur coloration. They descend from the fur trade. Someone made up the "Canadian" part of the word (although some foxes do descend from fur farms in Canada) and its mythological status, claiming an art doll is the animal in question. Who knows why."
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The soviets bred a "domesticated" fox that had black & white fur and floppy ears. they started w/ a red fox and selected the friendliest pups of every litter. turned out just like cats but they dug holes in rugs and furniture cushions to bury food scraps.
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