From nose to tail, a fennec fox is only about 40 cm long - small enough to fit in a backpack. Its ears can be 15 cm tall on a body that small. The ears do two clever jobs: they hear tiny noises (a beetle moving under the sand from metres away) and they act like radiators that let extra heat escape, keeping the fox cool.
Fennec foxes are most active at night, when the desert cools down. During the day they sleep in burrows they dig deep into the sand. A single burrow can have several entrances, so the fox can always come out a different way if a bigger animal is around.
Their paws have thick fur underneath - like built-in slippers. This protects them from hot sand the same way slippers protect your feet from a hot bathroom floor. They are also brilliant jumpers - from standing still, a fennec can leap a metre into the air to catch insects mid-flight.
Fennecs barely ever drink water. They get most of what they need from the food they eat - lizards, insects, small rodents, eggs and a few wild plants. Their kidneys are so good at saving water that they can live for weeks without taking a drink.