This one is especially for all the people who checked out a link in yesterday’s ocelot post and watched the video below, and then said to themselves “Wait. There’s a crab-eating fox? Well, what’s it doing in that field?”
“Could use a little HELP here, partner!” — the ‘fox.’
That is such an intriguing name, I looked into it once before as a follow-up to the sea wolves post, even though it’s a member of that highly complicated (some jargon) South American “fox” group.
But then I found no videos of the canids with crabs.
The sight of an ocelot assaulting what’s clearly a mild-mannered little canid that probably didn’t even know the cat was there made me take a second look at that species.
And seriously, why is it in a field instead of at the seashore?
Mongabay fills in some of the knowledge gaps:
Per Wikipedia (English), C. thous does eat crabs (and other things) in wetlands.
Wikipedia (Spanish) is well worth running through an online translator because there’s lots of information about this common canid that only its human neighbors would know.
For me, the high spot was learning that natives have been domesticating these canids for centuries. Some still do, although it’s illegal.
Spanish Wikipedia also mentions two other common wild canids with what sound to me like the names of comic-book superheroes. More on Deer Dog and the Maned Guazú in coming weekends…
More information on C. thous:
- Canid Specialist Group page
- Animal Diversity Web page
- In 2021, this little zorro cangrejero got rescued (Spanish). It’s really a different individual and also in a different location but my imagination must add: “The ocelot is still at large and is considered dangerous.”
Lagniappe:
“Nothing to seez heer, hooman. Move on n tek de bright wid u. Weze got sum dark payback bidness to du” — Los Zorros.
Featured image: David Monniaux via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Flight To Wonder 