Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Canidae > Vulpes > Vulpes macrotis

Vulpes macrotis (Kit Fox)

Synonyms: Vulpes macrotis macrotis; Vulpes macrotis mutica; Vulpes macrotis neomexicanus; Vulpes muticus; Vulpes velox mutica

Wikipedia Abstract

The kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) is a fox species of North America. Its range is primarily in the Southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. Some mammalogists classify it as conspecific with the swift fox, V. velox, but molecular systematics imply that the two species are distinct.
View Wikipedia Record: Vulpes macrotis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
12
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.57
EDGE Score: 1.52
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  4.519 lbs (2.05 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  40 grams
Female Weight [1]  4.189 lbs (1.90 kg)
Male Weight [1]  4.85 lbs (2.20 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  15.8 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  10 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  60 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  30 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  1 year
Male Maturity [1]  1 year
Gestation [4]  52 days
Litter Size [2]  4
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [2]  16 years
Nocturnal [5]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [1]  20 inches (51 cm)
Weaning [4]  56 days

Ecoregions

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Aquila chrysaetos (Golden Eagle)[13]
Canis latrans (Coyote)[4]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 44.5 Kit fox, Vulpes macrotis, R. List and B.L. Cypher, Sillero-Zubiri, C., Hoffmann, M. and Macdonald, D.W. (eds). 2004. Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. x + 430 pp.
♦ 5Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 6SPECIES ASSESSMENT FOR MOUNTAIN PLOVER (CHARADRIUS MONTANUS) IN WYOMING, HAMILTON SMITH AND DOUGLAS A. KEINATH, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, November 2004
♦ 7Dipodomys deserti, Troy L. Best, Nancy J. Hildreth, and Clyde Jones, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 339, pp. 1-8 (1989)
♦ 8Dipodomys heermanni, Douglas A. Kelt, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 323, pp. 1-7 (1988)
♦ 9Dipodomys ingens, Daniel F. Williams and Kerry S. Kilburn, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 377, pp. 1-7 (1991)
♦ 10Dipodomys ordii, Tom E. Garrison and Troy L. Best, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 353, pp. 1-10 (1990)
♦ 11Vulpes macrotis, John C. McGrew, Mammalian Species No. 123, pp. 1-6 (1979)
♦ 12Sylvilagus audubonii, Joseph A. Chapman and Gale R. Willner, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 106, pp. 1-4 (1978)
♦ 13Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 14International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0