Important Facts About Quebec City, Canada

Important Facts About Quebec City, Canada Located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, Quà ©bec City is the capital city of Canadas Quà ©bec province. Known for its classical architecture and a distinctive European feel, like most of the province, Quà ©bec City (Ville de Quà ©bec) is the second most populous city in the province after Montreal and the eleventh most populous city in Canada. The Historic District of Old Quà ©becs fortified city walls are the only ones of their kind left standing in northern North America, and in 1985, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Quà ©bec Citys Early History Quà ©bec City was the first city in Canada  to be established with the goal of becoming a permanent settlement rather than a commercial outpost such as St. Johns, Newfoundland, or Labrador and Port Royal, Nova Scotia. In 1535 the French explorer Jacques Cartier built a fort where he remained in residence for a year. He returned in 1541 to build a permanent settlement, however, it was abandoned in 1542. On July 3, 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded Quà ©bec City, and by 1665, there were over 500 residents. In 1759, Quà ©bec City was taken over by the British who controlled it until 1760, at which time, France was able to regain control. However, in 1763, France ceded New France- which included Quà ©bec City- to Great Britain. The Battle of Quà ©bec took place during the American Revolution as part of an effort to liberate the city from British control but the Revolutionary troops were defeated. This resulted in the splitting off of British North America. Instead of Canada joining the Continental Congress to become a part of the United States, it remained under British authority. Around this same time, the United States began to annex Canadian territory. The land grab precipitated the construction of the Citadel of Quà ©bec which was begun in 1820 to help stave off the American incursion. In 1840, the Province of Canada was formed and the city served as its capital for several years. In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottowa to be the capital of Canada in edging out Quà ©bec City, which then became the capital of the province of Quà ©bec. Population, Economy, and Culture Today, Quà ©bec City is one of Canadas largest cities. As of 2016, it had a population of  531,902,  with 800,296 concentrated in its metropolitan center.  Most of the city is French-speaking. Native English speakers represent only 1.5 percent of the citys population. The city is divided into 34 districts and six boroughs. In 2002, several nearby towns were annexed to accommodate growth. Most of the citys economy is based on transportation, tourism, the service sector, and defense. Quà ©bec Citys main industrial products are pulp and paper, food, metal and wood items, chemicals, and electronics. As the capital of the province, the provincial government is one of the citys biggest employers. Quà ©bec City is one of the most visited places in Canada. Tourist flock to its various festivals, the most popular being the Winter Carnival. The city also boasts a host of historic sites, including Citadel of Quà ©bec, as well as and numerous museums. Geographic Features and Climate Quà ©bec City is located along Canadas St. Lawrence River near the confluence with the St. Charles River. Due to its location along these waterways, most of the area is flat and low-lying. However, the Laurentian Mountains north of the city offer increased elevation. The citys climate is generally characterized as humid continental but as it borders several climate regions, the overall climate of Quà ©bec City is considered variable. Summers are warm and humid, while winters are extremely frigid and often windy. The average high temperature in July is 77 °F (25 °C), while the average January low is 0.3 °F (-17.6 °C). Average yearly snowfall is about 124 inches (316 centimeters)- one of the highest amounts in Canada.

The Thrift Savings Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Thrift Savings Plan - Research Paper Example However, as part of the retirement strategy, the employees choose to invest their funds into the Thrift Savings Plan. The funds are not controlled by the government. When the government money is at stake, one place it cannot bump into is the federal employee retirement program for saving. This makes it secure for all federal employees. This review is sought to investigate the purpose of the Thrift Savings Plan, the contributions of both the employers and the employees and its benefits to the employees. It will also explore on the problems and challenges of investing in this particular Savings Plan. History of Thrift Saving Plan The Thrift Savings Plan is a product of the Congress. It is established under the Federal Employees’ System Act of the year 1986 specifically for the federal employees and the military. The Thrift Savings Board is controlled by the Federal Retirement Board, an agency of government that is independent. The Plan is managed by five members of the Board tog ether with a Director, legally appointed by the president. This plan is equivalent to the private 401k and the 403b retirement plans. The tax benefits and saving options offered in The Thrift Savings Plan are similar to other retirement plans (Thrift Savings Plan Website). ... Automatic deductions on income. 2. A diverse choice of investment options for instance professional designed Lifecycle funds 3. A wide range of tax treatment contributions such as: -Traditional tax contributions and tax-referred investment earnings - Roth contributions with tax-free earnings at retirement 4. Low administrative and investment expenses. 5. Contributions of an agency if the employee is covered by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System 6. At some point employees can access their money while still employed by the Federal Government. 7. A beneficiary participant account established for an employee’s spouse in case of death 8. A wide range of choices of withdrawal 9. A widened term of deferred tax on contributions and their growth. According to the Thrift Savings Plan, an employee covered by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System forms part of the package that includes basic annuity and Social Security Fund (Nestler 44). The Thrift Savings Plan expl ains it this way: For those covered by the Civil Service Retirement System, the Thrift Saving Plan is a supplement to their unity. The benefits offered by the Thrift Saving Plan depend on the retirement system one is registered in. However, in all the systems, the Thrift Saving Plan increases their retirement income. (qtd. in Form tsp-3) When the employee funds the Thrift Savings Plan with traditional tax (pre-tax), the amount of income tax is lowered, hence decreasing the burden of tax when working. This can be beneficial if the employee contributes the maximum amount in the income tax bracket. When the employee or the member has invested in the Plan, no tax is made on the earnings until a withdrawal is made. A clear opportunity is

Software requirements Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Software requirements - Research Paper Example The process of development of requirements consists of the basic and initial level of raw requirements collected for development of software. These raw collections of requirements are taken from the customer or client of the software, who is interested in the development of the software. The early requirements are usually in the form of simple statements described by a client. These are written mostly informal ways as told by the client. The great and vital factor for requirements gathering is the technical aspect in which system is going to develop. This factor has a high scope for requirements gathering procedure. Finally, three factors have an impact on gathering of software’s requirement, the client, the environment, and the technicality of system that needs to develop. In addition to this factor, environment is itself a factor, which is involved in the making procedure of developed software. The method of elicitation of requirements is considered as the first step for collection of raw requirements. The Requirement Engineering Process Model (REPM) presented restrains various important and useful features for requirements gathering. According to the proposed model requirement elicitation, includes different kinds of important features. The requirements that are related to a business for which system is designed are important to know. These requirements involve around the demands of the business. The significance of the requirement is decided according the demand of business. These business needs will help in the process of prioritization of requirements. Along with the core business requirements, requirements that are directly useful for customers are equally important to gather. The requirements about how customer or end user will interact with the developed system are collected. These requirements create the basic structure of the system that how it will look like after final

Organization and Management Research

Organization and Management Research Organization and management research is in danger of becoming irrelevant Different researches undertaken by organizational management helps to gain knowledge in the management field (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Efficient management research is essential for any organization as it can indicate the success and the failure of that firm (Davis, 2014). The enormous extension in the field of management, over the previous few years, resulted in a great development in academic articles published (Davis, 2014). Despite all the good and valuable work being produced, this growth has been coupled with continuous debates that management research is becoming irrelevant in the present time (Davis, 2014). This paper is intended to focus on the various debates regarding the present downfall of management research and proposes alternative solutions to those problems (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Despite the vast and painstaking success, organizational and management research has a serious deficiency of high-impact research in the management field. It is argued that the researchers are becoming irrelevant for the business organizations (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). There is a large shared thought of a disturbing lack of original ideas and innovative contributions in the management studies (Alvesson, Spicer, 2016). Research process enhances the knowledge and train people to question the set norms if they seem backdated. Organizational and management research process has a huge lack of interesting and influential studies (Davis, 2014). The problem is that there is no mark of challenging the underlying assumptions of established literature (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). The gap-spotting research method is mostly used by the researchers and the institutions nowadays which are blocking the entry of creativity in the field of research (Neuman, 2014). Innovation and creativity are nee ded in this field, to question the previous beliefs of every individual and of course, the next task of the research process will be to provide essential theoretical and practical answer to every individual (Davis, 2014). The incremental consensus-confirming work is in the central attention rather than the consensus-challenging contributions which are really disappointing for the editors, other researchers and for the commentators (Quinlan, 2015). Institutional conditions, professional norms within the management field and the researches identity constructions, these three points are closely interconnected and quite influential for the organization and management research process (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). These three factors are equally supporting and practicing adding-to-the literature form means to find out the probable gap in the research thereby filling it up with suitable examples and arguments rather than challenging the whole system and providing an interesting and innovative framework (Neuman, 2014). There is a constant pressure prevalent for the researchers in the path of achieving identity (Quinlan, 2015). Nowadays, researchers are more interested in publishing their works in the top listed journals accepting the gap-spotting method which decreases the quality of research process (Verma, 2014). New evolutionary research is important not only to challenge the set assumptions of other people blindly but also, it is necessary for clear, critical and new viewpoints in the organizational and management research (Quinlan, 2015). Theory and literature studies are important in everything that we do; they act as a way of guiding us to perform better in our respective fields (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). They are essential for organizational behavior, practicing organizational psychology and at the time of studying (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). However, recently, the field of organization and management research has lost its essence and has become attracted to the interesting puzzles and shiny objects (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). There has been no advancement in the management theory; it is more concerned with the entertainment value present in the present articles and theories, rather than focusing on their real-world value and scientific rigor (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). The theories should be accurate and have value for them to be applied in the real-world practices (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Previously the theories that were developed, especially in the late 70s and 80s, they were completely focused and aimed at improving the existing practices of the organizations (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). The authors used to derive hypotheses from theoretical propositions, which were then tested before being formed into a theory (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). This helped in identifying the underlying relationships like whom do they apply to, and why and where. The theories of that time effectively addressed the what, how, why, when and where of the organizational phenomenon (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). The theoretical contributions were gauged on various parameters like what is new, how will it effect, and why now (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Currently, this has process has almost vanished (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). The researchers are more interested in getting a high quantity of articles published rather than focusing on the quality of the research or theories. This is because, the number of articles being published each year has increased significantly, and there is high competition among the authors to get their research papers published in leading journals (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Several new business schools have been established all around the world and the existing ones have expanded significantly, because of this there has been a major increase in the number of articles for organization and management research (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Furthermore, governments have introduced various assessment formulas like ERA and REF/RAE in Australia and the UK respectively (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). These assessment guidelines have been formulated by the government to govern the universities. Thus, because of this, it has b ecome a performance indicator for the top business schools, as the more articles they are able to get published in the high-end journals, their ranking and status will be improved (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This has led to the universities forcing the professors and scientists to get a high number of articles published every year and because of this, they cannot research properly and produce articles which lack good research and theory (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Additionally, even though there is a high increase in the number of articles being published, none of them have interesting and innovative theories, and are highly monotonous (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Since there has been an increase in the quantity of management articles, the authors have become competitive and due to this the quality of the articles has improved (Karlsson, 2016). However, this has not motivated the authors in publishing new and improved theories (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Research is done so that the knowledge of the particular field is enhanced and new and innovative theories are discovered, which help in making the existing practices better. Nevertheless, the research that is being done currently lacks innovative and interesting theories and ideologies (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). The authors have been publishing the same theories repetitively and gap spotting is becoming extremely popular. These articles are highly quantitative and contain figures from the past years, which make them irrelevant and tough to understand (Karlsson, 2016). Furthermore, they are just based on hypotheses and do not always turn out to be accurate. Since these organization and management research papers lack relevant theories and innovative ideas; the existing as well as upcoming managers have stopped reading them (Farnsworth, Keeble-Ramsay, Kemble, 2014). These research papers do not have much relevance with the real-time management world and the managers cannot relate t o them (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Thus, these papers are not solving the actual purpose and because of this there is a debate on whether these research papers are relevant for the business organizations or not (Karlsson, 2016). The research is done by the authors on the same topic repetitively. In one instance, there were two articles found on the Harvard Business Review, which was written by well-educated authors having good knowledge about academic management research (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). These articles were written by Bennis OToole (2005) and Behrman Levin (1984) and had a gap of 21 years. However, the content of both these articles were same and they addressed the same issues (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This is a proof of the same research is being repeated time and again. This means that the issues have not changed at all, and the same issues are plaguing the management world even now (Johnston, 2014). Therefore, the researchers should not waste their resources for providing solutions for the same research repetitively and the previous research papers and theories can be used by the existing managers as a guide (Karlsson, 2016). Or the solutions for the problems faced by the manager and how they can improve themselves have not been found by the researchers until now (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Even though several problems are plaguing organization and management research, and many people have been complaining about the system which is prevalent (Suddaby, Hardy, Huy, 2011). There have hardly been any proper complaints by these people regarding the system. This is because; many people are getting benefitted from the prevailing system and are dominating the field, so that it does not get changed. The other segments of people are continuing to support this system voluntarily (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Only few people are there who actually want this system to be changed. The benefactors of this system include the deans of the colleges and the status of the universities, publication houses, as well as the authors writing the existing articles (Karlsson, 2016). The deans of the colleges are highly benefitted because of this existing system, as according to the government regulations, the colleges can improve their ranking if higher number of articles are published in leading journals, which have been specified by them (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). So, they ensure that various articles from their college get published in these journals; thus, increasing their ranking and improving the image of the university. The publication houses are getting benefitted because there has been an increase in the research articles being submitted to them, which in turn is improving their brand name. This is also beneficial for the researchers, as writing these articles and getting them published in prestigious journals enhances their career (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). This has resulted in the biggest problem present in management research, which is gap spotting. Scientific enquiries involving questioning the underlying assumptions of the existing research and deal with consensus challenging theories; however, gap spotting involves consensus seeking, which is the complete opposite (Karlsson, 2016). This has become extremely popular and the authors identify or construct gaps in the studies that have been done previously. This is known as extending the literature, and the researchers use the previous research studies to extend them by critically or positively referring to them, and base their own study and theories on these works. The contemporary authors and researchers use this as an excuse in most of the cases, so that they can get their articles featured in leading journals (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This also has its benefits, as some articles actually need to be improved and challenged, but this has become a trend and the organization and manag ement research is becoming irrelevant due to this (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Gap spotting happens because of various reasons and a major reason is the professional norms that have been dictated by the editors, journals and reviewers (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). These journals have started this trend of gap spotting and constantly encourage the norm of adding-to-the literature. Since the authors want to get their articles published in these journals, they have to follow the guidelines and rules dictated by them (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). They follow a strict review system and to get an article published, an author has to get various changes done. Sometimes because of this, several parts have to be deleted and various meaningless additions are done, due to which the meaning of the article gets completely changed (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Furthermore, all these changes have to be done within the word count stipulated by them and the researchers have to listen to innumerable demands (Karlsson, 2016). This has become a significant problem, as sometimes because of this, people who have written good journals having relevant theories and discoveries, do not get their work featured (McKeown, Petitta, 2014).   The near omnipresent condition to constantly publish in the top rank journals has proved that most of the researchers have lost track and the main aim of the management studies, namely, to generate original knowledge that matters to the organization and community. (Quinlan, 2015). Therefore, the most noteworthy point here is that, in order to get back the management studies on the previous track, there is a need to shift the interest of the researchers from the recent paper production to the production of more innovative and significant ideas that can bring change in both organizational procedure and theories (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Using problematization and empirical material as methods for challenging previous assumptions will be beneficial to get new ways in the organizational and management research process (Neuman, 2014). Books Karlsson, C. (Ed.). (2016). Research Methods for Operations Management. Routledge. Neuman, W. (2014). Social research methods (1st ed.). Boston [u.a.]: Pearson. Quinlan, C. (2015). Business research methods (1st ed.). Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA. Verma, R. (2014). Management research (1st ed.). New Delhi: Anmol Publications. Journals Alvesson, M., Sandberg, J. (2012). Has Management Studies Lost Its Way? Ideas for More Imaginative and Innovative Research. Journal Of Management Studies, 50(1), 128-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01070.x Alvesson, M., Spicer, A. (2016). (Un)Conditional surrender? Why do professionals willingly comply with managerialism. Journal Of Organizational Change Management, 29(1), 29-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-11-2015-0221 Behrman, J. N., Levin, R. I. (1984). Are business schools doing their job. Harvard Business Review, 62(1), 140. Bennis, W. G., OToole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard business review, 83(5), 96-104. Birkinshaw, J., Healey, M. P., Suddaby, R., Weber, K. (2014). Debating the future of management research. Journal of Management Studies, 51(1), 38-55. Davis, G. (2014). Celebrating Organization Theory: The After-Party. Journal Of Management Studies, 52(2), 309-319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12094 Donaldson, L., Qiu, J., Luo, B. N. (2013). For rigour in organizational management theory research. Journal of Management Studies, 50(1), 153-172. Farnsworth, T., Keeble-Ramsay, D., Kemble, R. (2014, June). ProblematizingRepeat Studies in Management Sciences. In European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies (p. 144). Academic Conferences International Limited. Johnston, A. (2014). Rigour in research: theory in the research approach. European Business Review, 26(3), 206-217. McKeown, T., Petitta, L. (2014). Management studies in context: International, interconnected, yet still unique. Journal of Management Organization, 20(05), 567-571. Sandberg, J., Alvesson, M. (2011). Ways of constructing research questions: gap-spotting or problematization?. Organization, 18(1), 23-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508410372151 Suddaby, R., Hardy, C., Huy, Q. N. (2011). Introduction to special topic forum: where are the new theories of organization?.

Breast Implants in Teenagers Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The trend for a number of young girls is to get breast augmentation. They think that by changing their bodies, they’re going to change their lives. They think they will be happy, and they will be completely satisfied with their implants. Their expectation is that their self-confidence will skyrocket, and they will be attractive girls. Many young girls get implants to make themselves stand out more and to have a great appearance, but there are many reasons that they should comprehend the long-term effect of surgery.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, teenagers expect that plastic surgery will improve their self-confidence, but does it? Teenagers think that their new appearance will be great, but they may get different looks from their friends. For example, when they’re talking, their friends may look at their chest instead of looking at their faces and their friends may feel uncomfortable and awkward about their new breasts. One study found that teenager’s body-image may occur in the late teens because their bodies were still changing. The average girl gains weight between the ages of 18 and 21, and that is likely to change her desire or need for breast augmentation. This indicates that many young girls who are very dissatisfied with their appearance will feel more satisfied a few years later, whether or not they undergo surgery.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Second, will teenagers who want to have breast implants understand the risks of surgery? Some girls may be completely satisfied with their implants, but...

Ece Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Appropriate Practice When trying to come up with my teaching philosophy, I quickly realized that one size fits all† teaching is not for me. I needed to combine many methods to make my style fit the many personalities and learning styles of my students. With all of the learning styles that students exhibit I do not see how a teacher could simply teach with one philosophy all of the time. If a teacher chooses to lecture all the time, how will the kinesthesia and visual learners, who make up the biggest percentage of the population, understand the material?Due to the low self-esteem of many of the children In today's society I believe that teachers need to be extremely cautious when cringingly a students work. If a student does a poor Job on a paper or assignment I believe that the teacher should use remediation and help the child try to improve their score rather than telling them how poorly they did. Likewise, I believe that if a student does well they should receive praise for what they accomplished. The use of a variety of teaching methods is also crucial to the classroom.A lot of children become bored with the same routine day after day. In order to keep their attention and to keep them interested in the subject matter teachers need to use different methods of teaching such as field trips, debates, and cooperative learning activities. Of the five major philosophies (Perennials, Essentialist, Progressivism, Existentialism and Reconstructions) I relate most to the Existentialism Philosophy. In my opinion this is the most important approach in teaching students in today's society.I believe that students understanding and appreciation of themselves takes precedence over any subject that can be taught in school. No matter how intellectual a student may prove to be, without assurance and belief in themselves they will not accomplish much in life. Every child is different and has unique ways of learning and exceed in some subject areas more than others. A stud ent might not do well In mathematics but may be an excellent artist. This does not mean that they are not as Important as other students Just that they excel more In one area than In another.I feel that education Is not only based on the basics (math, science, reading, and writing), but built on them. To me, creative expression revolves around the basics hat are taught and also around the areas In life that are unseen, or thought. Creamery opens a person's mind, to not Just focus on what has been taught to us, which Is Information stored In the left side of the brain, but also to utilize our own Ideas and Imagination to express ourselves, which utilizes the right side of the brain.By doing creative things that use the imagination, we strengthen both parts of the brain. As children we feed the creative part of the brain, all is growing at once, once formal education is introduced, that vision is narrowed to the point that it becomes lost and often never recovered. A classroom that of fers this type of guidance and the freedom to a pressure-tree environment that allows tort creativity is what I from my class. Sire Another very important factor in a balanced curriculum is conveying emotions because it is an essential form of communication. According to the text (TAP chapter 1 peg 20) children work at their own pace, with their own learning style/ strategies and while learning, TAP engages both emotional and intellectual stimuli. The nice thing about the whole process of learning with this philosophy is that there is no pressure to where it is uncomfortable or not enjoyable. Like I said, each student determines his/her own pace and direction of learning.Without pressure, I feel the students would want to come and learn and to be with fellow students who have common interests and want to learn together, plus get to do what they enjoy doing anyway. Children learn so much better when their affective filter is down. The role of the teacher is to expose the students to the materials and subjects that are available, make them aware of their surroundings, help each one individually through the process, and help them create in an open, free, and stimulating environment.

Fennec Fox Facts (Vulpes zerda)

The fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is known for its huge ears and diminutive size. It is the smallest member of the canid (dog) family. Whether the fennec truly belongs in the genus Vulpes is debated because it has fewer chromosome pairs than other fox species, lives in packs while other foxes are solitary, and has different scent glands. Sometimes fennec foxes are known by the scientific name Fennecus zerda. Its common name comes from the Berber-Arabic word fanak, which means fox. Fast Facts: Fennec Fox Scientific Name: Vulpes zerdaCommon Names: Fennec fox, fennecBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 9.5-16 inch body plus a 7-12 inch tailWeight: 1.5-3.5 poundsLifespan: 10-14 yearsDiet: OmnivoreHabitat: North Africa and the Sahara DesertPopulation: StableConservation Status: Least Concern Description The fennec foxs most distinctive feature is its large ears, which may measure 6 inches. The ears help the fox identify prey at night and dissipate heat during the day. The fox is small, with a body ranging from 9 to 16 inches in length, plus a bushy 7 to 12 inch tail. Adults weigh between 1.5 and 3.5 pounds. The fennecs thick coat is cream-colored with a black-tipped tail. The fluffy coat insulates the fox against temperatures that range from below freezing at night to over 100 F during the day. Fur covers their paws, protecting them from getting burned by hot sand and improving traction on shifting dunes. Fennec foxes lack musk glands found in other fox species, but have glands on their tail tips that produce a musky odor when the fox is startled. Habitat and Distribution Fennec foxes live in North Africa and Asia. They range from Morocco to Egypt, south to northern Niger, and east to Israel and Kuwait. The foxes are most at home in sand dunes, but they will live where soil is compacted, too. Diet Foxes are omnivores. Fennec foxes are nocturnal hunters that use their sensitive ears to detect the movement of small underground prey. They eat rodents, insects, birds and their eggs, and also fruit and other plants. Fennecs will drink free water, but dont require it. They get their water from food, plus digging in the ground causes dew formation that the animals can lick. Behavior Fennec foxes communicate using a wide variety of sounds, including a purr resembling that of a cat. Males mark territory with urine. Other fox species are mostly solitary, but fennec foxes are highly social. The basic social unit is a mated pair and their offspring for the present and previous year. The group lives in elaborate dens dug into sand or compacted soil. Fennec fox kits are born with closed eyes and folded ears. Floridapfe / Getty Images Reproduction and Offspring Fennec foxes mate once a year in January and February and give birth in March and April. Gestation typically lasts between 50 and 52 days. The female or vixen gives birth in the den to a litter of one to four kits. A birth, the kits eyes are closed and its ears are folded over. Kits are weaned by 61 to 70 days of age. The male feeds the female while she is caring for the young. Fennec foxes reach sexual maturity around nine months of age and mate for life. They have an average life expectancy of 14 years in captivity and are believed to live about 10 years in the wild. Conservation Status The IUCN classifies fennec fox conservation status as least concern. The foxes are still abundant within most of their range, so the population may be stable. The species is listed under CITES Appendix II to help protect the foxes from international trade abuse. Threats The foxs most significant natural predator is the eagle owl. Fennecs are hunted for fur and trapped for the pet trade. But, the most significant threat comes from human settlement and commercialization of the Sahara. Many foxes are killed by vehicles, plus they may suffer habitat loss and degradation. Some people keep fennec foxes as pets. petrenkod / Getty Images Fennec Foxes and Humans The fennec fox is the national animal of Algeria. In some places, its legal to keep fennec foxes as pets. While not truly domesticated, they can be tamed. Like other foxes, they can dig under or climb over most enclosures. Most canine vaccinations are safe for fennecs. Although nocturnal by nature, fennec foxes (like cats) adapt to human schedules. Sources Alderton, David. Foxes, Wolves, and Wild Dogs of the World. London: Blandford, 1998. ISBN 081605715X.Nobleman, Marc Tyler. Foxes. Benchmark Books (NY). pp. 35–36, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7614-2237-2.Sillero-Zubiri, Claudio; Hoffman, Michael; Mech, Dave. Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. World Conservation Union. pp. 208–209, 2004. ISBN 978-2-8317-0786-0.Wacher, T., Bauman, K. Cuzin, F. Vulpes zerda. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T41588A46173447. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T41588A46173447.en