Pale fox

Pale fox
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Vulpes
Species:	V. pallida
Binomial name
	Vulpes pallida; (Cretzschmar, 1827)
	Pale fox range
Synonyms
	Canis pallidus; Vulpes pallidus; Fennecus pallidus;

Last updated January 30, 2023

The pale fox (Vulpes pallida) is a species of fox found in the band of African Sahel from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east.^[2]^[3] It is one of the least studied of all canid species, in part due to its remote habitat and its sandy coat that blends in well with the desert-like terrain.^[4]

Subspecies

There are five recognized subspecies:^[2]

Vulpes pallida pallida
Vulpes pallida cyrenaica
Vulpes pallida edwardsi
Vulpes pallida harterti
Vulpes pallida oertzeni

Description

The pale fox is a small fox, with a long body and relatively short legs and an narrow muzzle. The fur is quite thin, with a pale sandy colour that turns white towards the abdomen. The back is often speckled with a blackish or a rufous colouration, with a darker mid-dorsal line. The flanks are paler than the dorsal pelage, blending into buffy-white underparts, and the legs are rufous. It has a pale face, an elongated muzzle with relatively long whiskers, and a dark ring surrounding the eye.^[5]

Its tail is long and bushy, with a reddish brown color with a prominent black tip and a dark patch above the tail gland. The skull is small with a relatively short maxillary region and small sharp canine teeth.^[6] The ears are large compared to other foxes but is typical of a desert inhabiting canid.^[4]

Head and body length is 380–550 mm, tail length is 230–290 mm and weight 2.0–3.6 kg.^[5]

Distribution and habitat

Pale fox is distributed in the semi-arid Sahelian region of Africa bordering the Sahara Desert, from Mauritania and Senegal via Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad to the Red Sea. The southern border of its range extends to the savanna zones of northern Guinea.^[5] It is also present in Benin, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Sudan. The habitat is sandy or stony arid terrain, and the pale fox is able to relocate southwards and northwards in relation to the periodic droughts that affect these regions.^[1]

Ecology

The pale fox typically inhabits stony deserts and semi-deserts although it occasionally ventures south into the savanna. The pale foxes are primarily nocturnal. They are gregarious, living in shared burrows,^[7] probably in small family groups with parents and their young. During the day they rest in dug burrows that can extend up to 15 meters long and descend up to 2 meters to the ground, at dusk they venture out and forage for food, which includes plants and berries as well as rodents, reptiles and insects. It has the ability to retain water from its food, and can go almost completely without drinking.^[4]

Status

Although the abundance of the pale fox is unknown, it seems to be a common species throughout its wide range. No particular threats have been identified although this fox is sometimes hunted because it raids villages and takes poultry, and it is sometimes killed by vehicles at night. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".^[1]

Related Research Articles

Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail.

The fennec fox is a small crepuscular fox native to the deserts of North Africa, ranging from Western Sahara and Morocco to the Sinai Peninsula. Its most distinctive feature is its unusually large ears, which serve to dissipate heat and listen for underground prey. The fennec is the smallest fox species. Its coat, ears, and kidney functions have adapted to the desert environment with high temperatures and little water. It mainly eats insects, small mammals and birds. The fennec has a life span of up to 14 years in captivity and about 10 years in the wild. Its main predators are the Verreaux's eagle-owl, jackals and other large mammals. Fennec families dig out burrows in the sand for habitation and protection, which can be as large as 120 m² (1,300 sq ft) and adjoin the burrows of other families. Precise population figures are not known but are estimated from the frequency of sightings; these indicate that the fennec is currently not threatened by extinction. Knowledge of social interactions is limited to information gathered from captive animals. The fennec's fur is prized by the indigenous peoples of North Africa, and it is considered an exotic pet in some parts of the world.

Vulpes is a genus of the sub-family Caninae. The members of this genus are colloquially referred to as true foxes, meaning they form a proper clade. The word "fox" occurs in the common names of all species of the genus, but also appears in the common names of other canid species. True foxes are distinguished from members of the genus Canis, such as domesticated dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes, by their smaller size (5–11 kg), longer, bushier tail, and flatter skull. They have black, triangular markings between their eyes and nose, and the tip of their tail is often a different color from the rest of their pelt. The typical lifespan for this genus is between two and four years, but can reach up to a decade.

The bat-eared fox is a species of fox found on the African savanna. It is the only extant species of the genus Otocyon and considered a basal canid species. Fossil records indicate this canid first appeared during the middle Pleistocene.

The kit fox is a fox species that inhabits arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. These foxes are the smallest of the four species of Vulpes occurring in North America and are among the smallest of the vulpines worldwide. It has also been called a North American counterpart of the fennec fox due to its large ears.

The swift fox is a small light orange-tan fox around the size of a domestic cat found in the western grasslands of North America, such as Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It also lives in southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada, where it was previously extirpated. It is closely related to the kit fox and some mammalogists classify them as conspecific. However, molecular systematics imply that the two species are distinct. Interbreeding between the two species does occur where their ranges overlap, but this hybridization is quite restricted in scope.

The Bengal fox, also known as the Indian fox, is a fox endemic to the Indian subcontinent from the Himalayan foothills and Terai of Nepal through southern India, and from southern and eastern Pakistan to eastern India and southeastern Bangladesh.

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Claudio Sillero-Zubiri is an Argentine-born British zoologist. He is a Professor of Conservation Biology at Oxford University's WildCRU, the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, and Bill Travers Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall. He is the Chair of the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group, and Chief Scientist of the Born Free Foundation. He is internationally recognized for his work with carnivore conservation, and in particular the endangered Ethiopian wolf.

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Blanford's fox is a small fox native to the Middle East and Central Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

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The Pampas fox, also known as grey pampean fox, Pampas zorro, Azara's fox, or Azara's zorro, is a medium-sized zorro, or "false" fox, native to the South American Pampas. Azara in some of its alternative common names is a reference to Spanish naturalist Félix de Azara.

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The Red Sea coastal desert is deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Egypt and Sudan.

References

1 2 3 Sillero-Zubiri, C.; Wacher, T. (2012). "Vulpes pallida". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2012: e.T23052A16813736. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T23052A16813736.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
1 2 3 4 Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 532–628. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
↑ "Pale fox (Vulpes pallida)". Canid Specialist Group. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
1 2 3 "Arkive - Pale fox". 2006. Archived from the original on 2011-08-10. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
1 2 3 Sillero-Zubiri, C. (2004). "Pale fox Vulpes pallida (Cretzschmar, 1827)". In Sillero-Zubiri, C.; Hoffmann, M.; Macdonald, D. W. (eds.). Canids: foxes, wolves, jackals, and dogs : status survey and conservation action plan. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group. p. 199. ISBN 978-2-8317-0786-0.
↑ Clutton-Brock, Juliet; Corbet, Gordon B; Hills, Michael (1976). "A review of the family Canidae, with a classification by numerical methods". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). 29: 117–199. doi: 10.5962/bhl.part.6922 .
↑ Sheldon, Jennifer W. (1992). Wild dogs: the natural history of the non-domestic Canidae. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 182–184. ISBN 0-12-639375-3.