Darwin’s fox or Darwin’s zorro lives in the Chiloé Archipelago and Nahuelbuta National Park. It is considered critically endangered species that is adapted to the temperate rainforests of its Chilean homeland. It suffers from habitat loss, for the forests adjacent to the Nahuelbuta National Park are heavily logged. It is also persecuted because local farmers think the animal is a threat to their poultry. However endangered it is now, the Darwin’s fox was first documented through a specimen collected by Charles Darwin (which is why we call it the “Darwin’s fox.”)
Darwin describes his encounter with the unusual fox on San Pedro Island in the Chiloé Archipelago:
“In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro where we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two of the officers landed to take a round of angles with the theodolite. A fox (Canis fulvipes), of a kind said to be peculiar to the island and very rare in it, and which is a new species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently absorbed in watching the work of the officers that I was able, by quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the head with a geological hammer. This fox, more curious or more scientific, but less wise than the generality of his brethren is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological Society.”
Charles Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle
Where wild dogs are not persecuted, they are often tame and curious animals. Indeed, the warrah or Falkland Island wolf was also quite tame and easily dispatched. Even wolves from North America, which had not yet suffered persecution by Westerners, were rather curious and unafraid of man. Lewis and Clark were able to kill at least one wolf by attracting it with a piece of meat and then stabbing it with a knife. You would never be able to do that to a wild wolf today, but historically, where they have not been persecuted, they are often curious animals. (There are no wolf populations today, however, that have no undergone at least some persecution, although those of the High Arctic are those that have experienced it the least.) That’s probably why hunter-gatherers were able to domesticate wolves so easily.
The Darwin’s fox is not a true fox of the genus Vulpes or its allies. (The Arctic fox and the fennec have not traditionally been seen as vulpine foxes, and are place in their own genera. However, the Arctic fox is very closely related to the swif fox, and the fennec is very closely related to the red fox and the Reuppell’s fox.) The Darwin’s fox and all South American foxes are not that closely related to these animals. Instead, they share a common ancestry with the true dogs, the genus Canis and its allies. All South American wild dogs are related to the true dogs, and because of this relationship, it is not exactly accurate to call any of the smaller animals “foxes.”
I prefer to call them zorros, which is Spanish for fox. Calling them zorros also prevents confusion in another way. The Darwin’s zorro’s closest relatives are the culpeo and the “South American gray fox.” The latter has a terrible name.
Remember, there is another species called the gray fox. It’s a primitive wild dog that is native to North America. Some call it the North American gray fox, and that would be fine. However, its range extends through Mexico into Central America. There are populations of that animal in Colombia and Venezuela, which are South America. So are these also South American gray foxes?
I prefer to call the primitive animal the gray fox, even though it’s also not really a fox, and the South American animal the chilla fox or the gray zorro.
But things get even more confusing. At one time, the Darwin’s fox was considered a subspecies of the chilla. It was only when its DNA was compared with the chilla and the culpeo that it was declared a full species. Even today, one can find the Darwin’s fox listed as a subspecies of chilla in some taxonomic manuals and even peer-reviewed literature.
It is a very good book, if you’re into wild dogs.
And to make matters worse, the Darwin’s fox is in a lot of trouble. The areas around Nahuelbuta National Park are being clear cut. Settlers are moving into the lower valleys, and whenever the Chilean winter is harsh in those higher elevations, the foxes move down into settled areas, where they are often killed. So fully understanding that this species is a full species was very important.
If you would like to read more about Darwin’s fox, check out Holly Menino’s Darwin’s Fox and My Coyote. The book is about scientists studying three species of wild dog– the Darwin’s fox, the island fox (a relative the primitive gray fox), and the Eastern coyote. Two of these animals are endangered– the Darwin’s fox and the island fox. The coyote isn’t even remotely endangered, but it fits into the story because it is quite different in what we know about them. The scientists who are studying the two endangered species have to find out all sorts of information as quickly as possible. Species protection is riding on scientists’ ability to fnd out as much as they can about them. However, the process is long and tedious, and it’s very likely that while finding out as much as they can, the scientists will see their species disappear. The coyote scientists, however, are much more concerned with coming up with a management plan. Their animal isn’t endangered, and they have the leisure to come up with all sorts of more esoteric data about them.
