Endangered
Darwin's fox
Lycalopex fulvipes
Darwin's fox is a canid in the family Canidae (order Carnivora) — Lycalopex fulvipes, recorded as Endangered and tied to Chile.
Appearance
It is smaller and darker-colored than other members of the genus and shows several distinguishing morphological traits. Compared to the South American gray fox, the Darwin's fox has shorter legs, a broader and shorter skull, smaller auditory bullae, more robust dentition, with differences in jaw shape and premolar occlusion. Its pelage is mottled, consisting of black and gray fur with reddish tones on the ears and lower legs.
Darwin's Fox is a small, dark canine weighing 1.8 to 3.95 kg (4.0 to 8.7 lb), has a head-and-body length of 48 to 59 cm (19 to 23 in) and a tail that is 17.5 to 25.5 cm (7 to 10 in).
Range and habitat
The loss of habitat is an important threat as Darwin's fox prefers to inhabit forested areas, although they have been sited on plantations as well. The highest rates of forest loss are recorded in the coastal range of the Araucanía Region, where the annual forest loss rate reached 4.8% between 1999-2008. This was the second highest forest loss rate reported for Chilean temperate forest.
It is also known as the zorro chilote or zorro de Darwin in Spanish and is endemic to Chile, where it lives in the temperate rainforests of Nahuelbuta National Park, the Cordillera de Oncol, Cordillera Pelada, and Chiloé Island. Darwin's fox was first collected from San Pedro Island off the coast of Chile by the naturalist Charles Darwin in 1834, after whom the species is named.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Darwin's fox is an opportunistic omnivore and has a varied diet. In general, most of its diet is believed to come from insects, even so, it also feeds on small mammals, birds, reptiles, fruits and seeds.
In crisis
Darwin's fox or Darwin's zorro is an endangered canid from the genus Lycalopex, that is distantly related to wolves and whose members are not true foxes. The species is thought to number under 1,000 mature individuals, with most found on Chiloé Island and smaller populations on the mainland. Once considered Critically Endangered, it was reclassified as Endangered in 2016.
Its main threats come from domestic and feral dogs, that spread diseases and attack foxes, along with human disturbance and ongoing habitat loss from agriculture and forestry activity. Until the discovery of a small mainland population in Nahuelbuta National Park in 1990, it was thought that Darwin’s fox was endemic to Chiloé Island.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Darwin's fox is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Darwin's fox, Wikidata item Q631167. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
