Penny guards her fennec fox kits at the Ramat Gan Safari. (Tibor Jager)

It was a tunnel digging campaign that had everyone on staff at the Ramat Gan Safari on eggshells as Penny and Louie, four-year-old fennecs, busily dug out dens in their enclosure to protect two Israeli-born fox kits.

After a 15 year wait for locally born fennec kits, a Safari press release heralded the recent birth of these two cute fur balls. The new kits, not yet named, were born exactly 50 days after Penny, who came from a zoo in England two years ago to the Ramat Gan establishment, and Louie mated.

Safari staff covered the fox enclosure with material so as to give the young parents privacy and is now slowly introducing the foxes to the public.

Fennec foxes are not threatened by extinction and can be found both in zoos and as exotic pets.

One of the newly born fennec fox kits. (Tibor Jager)