I’ve talked about the adaptations that different wildlife have in order to survive winter and I’ve mentioned how the paws on a fox are like mini snowshoes. I thought the image below showed it perfectly and cropped it in close to show the paw better. Besides the long claws used for digging and catching prey, notice the fur on the footpad. There’s no skin coming in contact with the snow thus insulating the paw but it also helps keep the foot from sinking too far into the snow much as a snowshoe would do for a person. When I viewed this image, I knew I needed to make a crop of it to better show the paw and I think it’s a good illustration of just how these animals are able to do what they do during the snowy months.