THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RED FOX
A small-sized canid, with long and slender legs and pointed muzzle, and long brush-like tail. A montane, small-sized subspecies of North American Red Fox, with a very large tail, paler coloration and less pronounced black on feet and legs. Pelage is yellowish fulvous, darkest on median line, palest on sides of neck and flanks.
Throat and chest are whitish, darkened by underfur showing through. Face is buffy fulvous and whitish, nose dull brownish fulvous, grizzled with buffy. Ears relatively large, pointed, erect, black backed, white inside. Outer sides of legs dark reddish fulvous. Black of forefeet reaching to elbow, black of hind feet narrow and hardly reaching ankle. Tail is very long, thick and bushy, grizzled grayish buff mixed with black hairs, the black hairs on upper side of base forming a broad blackish patch, white tipped. Females are smaller than males.
Reproduction and behavior
- Gestation: 51-53 days.
- Young per birth: 2-3.
- Weaning: 56-70 days.
- Sexual maturity: 12 months.
- Life span: 5-6 years.
- Breeding season: Between December and March.
Similar to lowland-dwelling
North American Red Fox subspecies, births occur from March through
May in sheltered dens. Dens may be burrows dug by themselves,
abandoned ones previously used by other Foxes or other species,
various natural cavities such as caves, hollow trees and logs, openings
in very thick brush or piles of wood debris, or in structures such as barns
and other outbuildings, grain elevators, haystacks and culverts.
Both
parents aid in providing the pups with food and protection. Juveniles
disperse when they are 6-8 months old. The longest dispersal distances
are made by males. Dispersal by adults also occurs, usually in response to
reduced availability of food on the home range due to climatic factors,
or to a more general cyclic crash of an important prey species. Social behavior: Mated pairs, reproductive output is generally low in montane foxes.
Diet and interaction with the environment
Their diet consists in small mammals; as
winter progresses, when it is difficult to break through the layers of
snow to gain access to small mammals, they turn more to scavenging
from carcasses left by larger predators or excavate and consume
cached food.
Their main predators are the coyotes. Adapted to survive in harsh
winter conditions at high elevations. They exploit higher elevations
more than coyotes, which may be a spatial competition avoidance
mechanism since there are few if any coyote territories above 2,100m. They are better adapted to hunt in deep snow, as their relatively
large feet and long track length allow Foxes to stay on top of the snow.
Habitat:
Native to Canada and United States, is found mainly in northwestern United
States and southwestern Canada, on the Rocky Mountains, Wasatch Range, near Great
Salt Lake, Utah, mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. Also described
from East Oregon, mountainous parts of Idaho, Montana, Black Hills of
South Dakota to Northern New Mexico and Northern Arizona. In Canada it occurs in extreme Southeastern British Columbia, Southern Alberta
and probably Southwestern Saskatchewan.
The subspecific status of the Red
Fox inhabiting lowlands in those areas is unclear, and may be Vulpes fulva macroura that could have descended from the montane habitats back
to the plains, or Vulpes fulva fulva that could have migrated from the surrounding
region. In addition, it is unknown where the dividing line is between
these two subspecies or if an integradation zone exists. Red Foxes at
Yellowstone National Park belong to the macroura subspecies.
Their habitat consists in high elevations in the Rocky
Mountains, from 1,350 to 3,000 m. They prefer habitats close to the
edge of a major structural change in vegetation. To avoid Coyotes,
they may have to survive in between, on the periphery, or at higher
elevations than Coyotes. Conservation status: least concern.
Physiognomic information:
- Body length: 55.8-68.5 cm
- Tail length: 35-40 cm
- Height: 38-41 cm
- Weight: 3.2-6.8 kg
- Skull: 13 cm
Taxonomy:
The North American red foxes have been traditionally considered either as subspecies of the Old World red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, or subspecies of their own species, Vulpes fulva. Due to the opinion that North American red foxes were introduced from Europe, all North American red foxes have been seen as conspecific with Vulpes vulpes; however, genetic analyses of global red fox haplotypes indicates that the North American red foxes have been genetically isolated from the Old World populations for 400,000 years, prompting possible application of Vulpes fulva to all North American red foxes.
At least 9 subspecies are generally recognized in North America (Aubry, 1983 and 2009, Kamler and Ballard, 2002; Sacks, 2010): Vulpes fulva fulva (Eastern United States), Vulpes fulva rubricosa (central and E Canada), Vulpes fulva regalis, Vulpes fulva alascensis (boreal Alaska), Vulpes fulva abietorum (boreal Canada), Vulpes fulva macroura (Rocky Mountains), Vulpes fulva cascadensis (Cascade Range), Vulpes fulva necator (Sierra Nevada) and Vulpes fulva patwin (Sacramento Valley).
Castello (2018) has formalized treatment of Vulpes fulva as a separate species from the Old World Vulpes vulpes. In 2014, Mark J. Statham among others released a study that supports Vulpes fulva as a separate species from the Old World Vulpes vulpes. More about the Vulpes vulpes fulva and Vulpes fulva discussion:
Gallery:
Due to the similarity in appearance between North American Red Foxes, some of the images may be erroneous. That's why I haven't found any videos about this subspecies either, if you think you have any image or video of the Vulpes fulva macroura let me know in the comments or contact me on any of my social networks (@etzharai).
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario