Tibetan fox
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Tibetan fox ( Vulpes ferrilata ), illustration from 1890. |
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| Vulpes ferrilata | ||||||||||||
| Hodgson , 1842. |
The Tibetan fox ( Vulpes ferrilata ), occasionally also the Tibetan sand fox , is a species of real fox ( Vulpini ) that is found in the steppe and semi-desert areas in the highlands of Tibet at altitudes of 2500 to 5200 meters. The species has a dense fur that is pale grayish, agouti or sand colored on top , the sides of the body are iron gray. It feeds mainly on piping hares and other small mammals. Tibetan foxes are monogamous , the females usually give birth to two to five young animals in an earthworks.
There is no reliable information on the size of the population or the development of the population. The Tibetan fox is hunted to a small extent in its entire range for its fur. Due to the large area of distribution and the current lack of serious threats, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies it as "Least Concern".
features
general characteristics
The information on body measurements and weights of the Tibetan fox in the literature is not uniform. According to Schaller & Ginsberg (2004), 7 males had a head-torso length of 56 to 65 cm, on average 58.7 cm, a tail length of 26 to 29 cm, on average 27.9 cm and a weight of 3.8 up to 4.6 kg, on average 4.1 kg. The corresponding values of 8 females were: head-torso length 49-61 cm, mean 55.4 cm, tail length 22-26 cm, mean 23.9 cm and weight 3.0-4.1 kg, mean 3.5 kg. However , animals caught in China's Qinghai and Sichuan provinces from 2003 to 2007 were 12–25% larger and heavier; 13 males reached a mean head-trunk length of 67.3 cm and 6 of these males a mean weight 4.9 kg, 6 females had a mean head-trunk length of 62.8 cm and a mean weight 3.9 kg. The tail length corresponds to about 50% of the body length. A female estimated to be one year old measured 57.5 cm and weighed 3.5 kg. However, both studies show that males are, on average, significantly larger and heavier than females.
The species is larger than the steppe fox, whose range overlaps in parts with that of the Tibetan fox, the steppe fox also has longer legs and larger ears in comparison. The face, which is mainly characterized by a long, narrow snout, is particularly characteristic.
The thick, bushy fur is pale grayish, agouti - or sand-colored, with a yellow-brown vertical stripe on the back, from the muzzle over the head, neck and back. The cheeks and sides of the body including the pelvic region are grayish. The underside is lighter to white. The front legs are reddish brown to yellowish in color, and between the front legs and the throat there are vertical gray to black stripes. The bushy tail is gray with a reddish-yellow undercoat and a dark stripe on the top, the tip of the tail is white. The violet gland is characterized, like most other kinds of dogs by a dark vertical stripes on the tail skin. The ears are 46 to 70 millimeters in length, they are white on the inside and colored on the outside to match the color of the head.
Like other foxes adapted to cold regions, such as the steppe fox and the arctic fox ( Alopex lagopus ), the Tibetan fox is adapted to the cold through the specific properties of its skin and fur. The skin pores have a maximum diameter of two micrometers and the fur hair is particularly good heat insulating thanks to the air pockets .
Skull and skeletal features
The skull of the Tibetan fox is elongated, the upper (maxillary) and lower jaw are very narrow. The skull has a total length of 149.0 to 157.8 millimeters with a snout length of 70.5 to 80.7 millimeters and an upper row of teeth 63.5 to 50.3 millimeters in length. The distance from the intermaxillary bone (premaxillary) at the tip of the snout to the rearmost points of the occipital cusps ( condylobasal length ) is 132.5 to 149.0 millimeters. In the area of the zygomatic arches the skull has a width of 65 to 85.9 millimeters, in the area of the rear molars from 37.9 to 39.9 millimeters.
| 3 | · | 1 | · | 4th | · | 2 | = 42 |
| 3 | · | 1 | · | 4th | · | 3 |
The type has three cutting teeth (incisors), a canine (canine), four Vorbackenzähne (Praemolares) and two molars (Molar) in an upper jaw half and three cutting teeth, a canine, four Vorbackenzähne and three molars in the lower jaw half. The animals have a total of 42 teeth. The molars are well developed and, due to the long muzzle, have relatively large distances from one another. The canine teeth are very long and pointed compared to those of other foxes.
Like all dogs, the Tibetan fox has a penis bone (baculum); this is 42.2 to 48.7 millimeters long and notched lengthways with the exception of the head end facing the penis tip.
genetics
The Tibetan fox has a simple chromosome set (s) of 18 and a diploid chromosome set of 2n = 36, so it has a total of 36 chromosomes in each cell. Chromosomes 1 to 15 are metacentric and chromosomes 16 to 18 are submetacentric .
distribution and habitat
The Tibetan fox lives in the steppe and semi-desert areas in the highlands of Tibet . Its distribution area extends from the northern border of the Indian province of Ladakh and northern Nepal over the entire Tibetan Autonomous Region and parts of the adjacent Chinese provinces of Xinjiang , Qinghai , Gansu , Sichuan and Yunnan . The species is probably also found in northern Bhutan .
The habitat of the Tibetan fox is at altitudes of 2500 to 5200 meters, in China usually above 3500 meters. They live in semi-arid to dry steppe and semi-desert areas, which are mainly characterized by rocky and stony mountain slopes and grasslands. The temperatures in the habitats range from around 30 ° C in summer to −40 ° C in winter, with the main amount of precipitation falling in summer, with an annual rainfall of 100 to 500 millimeters.
Way of life
Tibetan foxes live and hunt alone or in pairs. They are diurnal because their prey also comes out of their burrows during the day. The frequency of their occurrence depends mainly on the availability of prey. In censuses, in the region of north-west Tibet with few animals, only five Tibetan foxes were sighted over a distance of 1848 kilometers, while in Qinghai 15 foxes were seen over 367 kilometers and in Sêrxü even 8 foxes over a distance of 11 kilometers.
The foxes do not form or defend territories, often several pairs live together and use the same hunting grounds. The communication is carried out mainly by short bark over short distances, to communicate over long distances is unknown. The burrows are mostly located below rocks or rows of trees in the grassland with a moderate gradient, but not on a south-facing slope that is heavily exposed to the sun. In addition, the density of prey and the proximity of water points play a role in the choice of location. The burrows usually have one entrance, but can also have several entrances. When around 90 fox burrows were measured, it was found that the entrance area has an average width of 17 centimeters and an average height of 24.9 centimeters; the first tunnel is around 170 centimeters long on average.
nutrition
The main prey of the Tibetan fox is the black-lipped pika ( Ochotona curzoniae ), which can make up 95% of the prey regionally. The pika is a key species in the ecosystem and is the main prey of almost all of the plateau's smaller predators such as the Tibetan fox, the red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), the Altai weasel ( Mustela altaica ) and the manul ( Otocolobus manul ). Studies on the distribution and population of Tibetan foxes in relation to the population of the whistle hares indicate that the Tibetan fox is dependent on the presence of the whistle hares as a food source and that the Tibetan fox is not to be found in areas where this is missing. In this study, about 99% of the fox droppings examined contained pigeon rabbit DNA, 97% mainly and 73% exclusively pigeon DNA. The Chinese blind mole rat ( Myospalax fontanierii ), the Himalayan marmot ( Marmota himalayana ) and the Tibetan woolly hare ( Lepus oiostolus ) as well as other small rodents of the genera Alticola , Cricetulus and Pitymys can also be significant regional prey . In Qinghai, Tibetan foxes could be seen accompanying brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) on their hunt for whistling hares and catching individuals that escaped the bears while they were being excavated. They kept a distance of at least 30 meters as long as the bear had not started to dig, but came closer to within two meters when it was digging for the whistling hares.
In addition , the Tibetan fox prey on a number of smaller birds such as the ear lark ( Eremophila alpestris ), the Adam's snow sparrow ( Montifringilla adamsi ), the Tibetan partridge ( Perdix hodgsoniae ) and the cave tit ( Pseudopodoces humilis ) as well as lizards, for example Phrynocephalus theobaldi , and insects. The Tibetan fox also feeds in small proportions as a scavenger on the prey remains of wolves and bears as well as on vegetable food such as grasses and berries. As carrion above all are Tibetan antelope ( Pantholops hodgsonii ), the blue sheep ( Pseudois nayaur ) and the Himalayan musk deer ( musk leucogaster ) significant.
Reproduction
The mating season of the monogamous Tibetan foxes is commonly assumed to be in late February to March. The two to five puppies are born in Erdbau in May after a gestation period of 50 to 60 days. However, in an investigation in Qinghai Province, litters were observed in late January to early February, in which case mating would take place in December. The young animals weigh 60 to 120 grams at birth and are nestlings . They leave the burrow only after a few weeks, the time of weaning is unknown.
During the named investigation in Qinghai it could be observed that the young animals, accompanied by a male fox, left the den at the beginning of February and that the fox killed the whistle hares for the young. The young animals had already reached 3/4 the height of their parents by May and left their parents' den after the beginning of June.
Predators and parasites
Above all stray and feral domestic dogs as well as wolves and various birds of prey are among the predators of the Tibetan fox.
The main parasites are the fox tapeworm ( Echinococcus multilocularis ) and the closely related Echinococcus shiquicus , with the proportion of foxes parasitized by Echinococcus in Sichuan, for example, accounting for about 59%. The larval stages of the Echinococcus species come from the prey, especially the pika, although Echinococcus shiquicus was first described in 2005/2006 as a new species from the black-lipped pigeon and the Tibetan fox.
As ectoparasites , the Tibetan fox mainly carries the two tick species Callopsylla dolabris and Oropsylla silantiewi .
Systematics
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Phylogenetic classification of the genus Vulpes
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The first scientific description of the Tibetan fox based on a specimen from Lhasa in Tibet comes from Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1842. He described the species as Vulpes ferrilatus , which means that with the first description he classified it in today's genus Vulpes . The species name ferrilatus is derived from the Latin words ferrum for iron and latum for far or wide and refers to the iron-gray sides of the body. In 1937 Reginald Innes Pocock's sex form was corrected to V. ferrilata . In 1884 Nikolai Michailowitsch Prschewalski described a fox from northern Tibet as Canis eckloni , but this name was recognized as a synonym for Vulpes ferrilata .
Today the Tibetan fox is classified as part of the Vulpes genus along with nine other species . On the basis of morphological and molecular biological data, it was developed by Binninda-Emonds et al. Recognized in 1999 as a sister species of the steppe fox ( Vulpes corsac ), both together form the sister group of a taxon from the red fox ( V. vulpes ) and the ruff fox ( V. rueppelli ). The investigations by Zrzavý & Řičánková in 2004 did not confirm this position, so the Tibetan fox was classified as basal in the genus.
The Tibetan fox is monotypical, so no subspecies are distinguished. Fossil finds of the species are unknown.
Threat and protection
Like other foxes, the Tibetan fox is hunted for its fur in its entire range, but to a limited extent. Hunting is mainly done with traps placed near the burrows. In Sêrxü , for example, more than 900 foxes were killed in this way each year. The skins are mainly used to make fur hats, although the higher quality fur of the red fox is preferred to the skins of the Tibetan and steppe foxes. Among the main threats are government programs to reduce the pigeon bunny population from poison in a large part of the range. Fox poisoning does not seem to happen often. The reduction or eradication of the main food source, however, would pose a real threat to the population of the Tibetan fox.
The Tibetan fox is not listed in the appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Washington Convention). In China there are several protected areas in which the fox lives and is protected, but protection there is insufficiently enforced. These protected areas include Arjin Shan (45,000 km²), Xianza (40,000 km²), Changtang (approx. 334,000 km²), Hoh Xil (approx. 45,000 km²) and the Sanjiangyuan Conservation Area (approx. 152,000 km²). Outside of the protected areas, the species is unprotected.
There is no reliable information on the size of the population or the development of the population; an estimate in 1989 that was classified as very rough and uncertain resulted in a world population of around 37,000 animals. Due to the large distribution area and the current lack of serious threats, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the species as “Least Concern”.
supporting documents
- ^ GB Schaller & JR Ginsberg 2004: Tibetan Fox - Vulpes ferrilata (Hodgson, 1842) . In: Sillero-Zubiri, Claudio; Hoffman, Michael; MacDonald, David W. (2004): Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs - 2004 Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN / SSC Canid Specialist Group, ISBN 2-8317-0786-2 : pp. 148–151 Online ( Memento of July 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 308 kB). (The values given by Clark et al. 2008 in Mammalian Species. 821 with reference to this source are incorrect.)
- ↑ a b c d e R.B. Harris, ZH Wang, JK Zhou, QX Liu: Notes on biology of the Tibetan fox ( Vulpes ferrilata ) . In: Canid News . 11, 2008, pp. 1-7.
- ↑ a b c Tibetan Fox. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008; P. 421. ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Howard O. Clark, Darren P. Newman, James D. Murdoch, Jack Tseng, Zsenghuan H. Wang, Richard B. Harris : Vulpes ferrilata (Carnivora: Canidae) . In: Mammalian Species . tape 821 , 2008, p. 1–6 ( full text (PDF; 536 kB)).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, Michael Hoffmann, David W. Macdonald (IUCN / SSC Canid Specialist Group): Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN - The World Conservation Union, 2004; Pp. 148-151. ( Full text ( memento of October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
- ↑ a b c d Vulpes ferrilata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Schaller & Ginsberg, 2004. Accessed December 25, 2011th
- ↑ Zheng-Huan Wang, Xiao-Ming Wang, A. Aleksei Chmura: Den Habitat Characteristics of Tibetan Foxes (Vulpes ferrilata) in Shiqu County, Sichuan Province, China. (PDF; 408 kB) Zoological Studies 47 (4), 2008: pp. 445–454.
- ↑ a b Zheng-Huan Wang, Xiao-Ming Wang: Ecological Characteristics of Tibetan Fox Dens in Shiqu County Sichuan Province, China. Zoological Research 2006: pp. 18-22. (Chinese text, abstract English)
- ^ Andrew T. Smith , J. Marc Foggin: The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a keystone species for biodiversity on the Tibetan plateau. (PDF; 61 kB) Animal Conservation 2, 1999; Pp. 235-240.
- ↑ a b Richard B. Harris, Zhou Jiake, Ji Yinqiu, Zhang Kai, Yang Chunyan, Douglas W. Yu: Evidence did the Tibetan fox is an obligate predator of the plateau pika: conservation implications. Journal of Mammalogy 95 (6), 2014; Pp. 1207-1221. doi : 10.1644 / 14-MAMM-A-021
- ↑ Ning Xiao, Jiamin Qiu, Minoru Nakao, Tiaoying Li, Wen Yang, Xingwang Chen, Peter M. Schantz, Philip S. Craig, Akira Ito: Echinococcus shiquicus n. Sp., A taeniid cestode from Tibetan fox and plateau pika in China . International Journal for Parasitology 35 (6), 2005; Pp. 693-701. ( Abstract ).
- ↑ Ning Xiao, Jiamin Qiu, Minoru Nakao, Tiaoying Li, Wen Yang, Xingwang Chen, Peter M. Schantz, Philip S. Craig, Akira Ito: Echinococcus shiquicus, a new species from the Qinghai – Tibet plateau region of China: Discovery and epidemiological implications. Parasitology International 55 (Supplement), 2006; Pp. S233-S236. ( Abstract ).
- ↑ a b O.RP Binninda-Emonds, JL Gittleman, A. Purvis: Building large trees by combining phylogenetic information: a complete phylogeny of the extant carnovora (Mammalia). Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 74, 1999; Pp. 143-175.
- ↑ Jan Zrzavý, Věra Řičánková: Phylogeny of Recent Canidae (Mammalia, Carnivora): Relative Reliability and Utility of Morphological and Molecular Datasets. In: Zoologica Scripta Volume 33, No. 4, July 2004, pp. 311-333, doi : 10.1111 / j.0300-3256.2004.00152.x .
literature
- Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (Eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 1: Carnivores. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2009. ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1 .
- Howard O. Clark, Darren P. Newman, James D. Murdoch, Jack Tseng, Zsenghuan H. Wang, Richard B. Harris: Vulpes ferrilata (Carnivora: Canidae) . In: Mammalian Species . tape 821 , 2008, p. 1–6 ( full text (PDF; 536 kB)).
- Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, Michael Hoffmann, David W. Macdonald (IUCN / SSC Canid Specialist Group): Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN - The World Conservation Union, 2004; Pp. 148–151 ( full text ( memento of October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )).
Web links
- Vulpes ferrilata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Schaller, GB, Ginsberg, JR & Harris, R., 2008. Accessed December 25, 2011th
