Lumi Foxes (Vulpes caverna)

Lumi Foxes are a small, cave dwelling species of fox that are very well adapted to their way of life. They have short legs, for better maneuverability in some of the smaller caves. They're often the color of stone, varying between black, grays, white and browns, and often have very mottled patterns of a different color. One of their most interesting adaptations is bioluminescence. This bioluminescence can come in any bright color, and each pattern is completely different between foxes, ranging from swirls and spots, to stripes and blotches. The color of the bioluminescent pattern will always correspond with the color of the foxes eyes and it's nose, the eyes being a darker shade of the color, and the nose being slightly tinted with that same color.

The way that these foxes live is very similar to that of wolves, living in packs that mostly consist of family members. Unlike wolves, they don't have an alpha pair or even an alpha, instead the foxes live together, raise pups together, hunt together, etc. without a certain fox deciding what should happen and who should do what. Pups, who normally come in litters from  2-6, are raised by the entire pack, not just their parents, and are cared for until they can hunt well, when they have the decision to either go out an join a new pack, or stay with the one they're born in.

These foxes have also developed a very unique way of communication via their bioluminescence. They flash the bioluminescence in different lengths, and number of times, in different orders to mean certain things, very similar to Morse code. If a fox is unable to communicate, either via being blind or being melanistic, they will either be banished from their pack and that pack's cave, or are killed by their mother out of kindness, knowing that they wouldn't be able to survive very long anyway.

Like with every animal, these foxes have color mutations, the main ones showing up being albinism, melanism, piebald, and chimera. Albinism is the most common out of all these mutations, which is unusual for most animals, as animals with albinism both stand out, and are sensitive to sunlight. With Lumi Foxes, albino animals have an advantage over other albino species. They rarely ever come in contact with the sun, and live in nearly complete darkness, preventing them from standing out while hunting. The opposite of albinism, melanism, is a different story. With melanism causing an increase in black pigmentation, even the bioluminescent patterns on the fox are black, causing the fox to be unable to glow, and preventing them from communicating with other foxes, leaving them to be unable to hunt, ask for help, or even find a mate, leading them to either be killed at birth, or banished from their pack. The other two mutations, piebald and chimera, are both somewhat similar, piebald causing some of the fox to be white, and chimera being a combination of two foxes that normally merged during development, most commonly being split, with one half of the fox looking like one fox, and the other looking like a completely different one.

Current status:: closed for everyone except Nettle-Fox, may be in offers for OTAs or in adopts