If you have been following along with these Saturday posts, you’ll know that I have thought about covering Latin American “foxes” but found their evolution confusing.
Two things changed my mind:
- Why strain at a gnat after swallowing a bat?
The bat-eared “fox”, in Africa.
- This wonderful story (autotranslated) of two injured Chilean “foxes” — a culpeo and a gray “fox” — who were treated and then released recently back into the wild.
The culpeo
First, meet the culpeo (I didn’t check these facts):
More information:
- Lycalopex & Co., Canid Specialist Group (jargon elert)
- Wikipedia
- Animal Diversity Web
The gray “fox,” or chilla
Here is one nervous, thirsty zorro:
How fox-like but also dog-like these Latin American canids are!
Meanwhile, in Quintana Roo, Mexico —
More information:
- Canid Specialist Group (jargon alert)
- Animal Diversity Web
- Wikipedia
Some lagniappe:
Rescue of a domesticated animal is not always so straightforward as “treat and release” — but it is so worth it!
Featured image: Culpeo (top), yakovlev.alexey via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0; Gray fox (bottom), Eduardo Schmeda, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Flight To Wonder 