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I just watched a video of a small desert fox (fennec) that toys and eats a scorpion. Although I am unsure of the exact type of scorpion, it is apparently quite able to sting. Another online instance of the same video states that the scorpion is Androctonus Australis. Not only is this breed severely venomous and claiming, as its name suggests, human lives every year, but it is also well armoured. You can hear it when the fennec chews on it...

Fennec Fox eats Scorpion

So, my question, which might be stupid: how can this fox take the scorpion in its snout again and again? I notice that it lets the scorpion go many times. Is it able to avoid being stung? Is it extremely resistant to venoms? I read in the Wikipedia article, that it eats insects, but was unable to find out more!

I was able to find some information about hedgehogs and snake venom, but nothing similar about canines. In the case of hedgehogs, a partial immunity is apparently due to a protein called erinacin in its muscles.

After a user kindly corrected my spelling, I found some comments beneath YouTube videos, claiming it was nearly immune to scorpion venom. Sadly without additional information.

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Very carefully. First remove the stinger, the rest is relatively easy. In your video, you see the fox quickly bite at the stinger, then back off. Over and over until the scorpion's abdomen was loose as a rag, unable to launch the stinger at 3:08 minutes. 3:32 - you can see the stinger is almost off. 3:40 - stinger gone, she can now eat it more calmly.

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  • $\begingroup$ I have to admit it's hard for me to see if she gets stung. But even with these techniques, they must get stung every once in a while, right? $\endgroup$
    – Ludi
    Sep 24, 2016 at 15:18

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