Curious, innovative and mysterious survivors of the arctic tundra.

Look at it curled up in its cloudlike pillow of snow-white fur, an icon for beauty if there ever was one. Perhaps there is something deep within us that recognizes this material for what it is, one of nature's greatest feats of engineering. It is believed that no other animal coat can match the insulating properties of arctic fox fur.

Ever since explorers began venturing north into the harsh lands of the Arctic, they have encountered arctic foxes in the unlikeliest and most inhospitable of places. The arctic fox is an extraordinary creature.

No bigger than a house cat, it survives on almost nothing in the middle of a land so hostile it seems incompatible with the very existence of life. The tundra is a place of endless days or endless nights where temperatures can reach -58 degrees Fahrenheit (-50 degrees Celsius) for weeks at a time, and where the terrain consists mostly of ice sheets, pack ice, ice floes, icebergs, ice shelves and glaciers.

Arctic Fox tells the story of this animal from its evolutionary beginnings to its difficult life in the far north involving:

• Mating and raising a family
• Hunting and scavenging
• Its relationship with the polar bear and other arctic inhabitants
• The fur trade
• Adaptation to seasonal changes
• The never ending struggle for survival in a fragile and vanishing environment.

This informative, lively and beautifully photographed book will fascinate naturalists and general readers.