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Magellanic fox |
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He is a wild animal |
Origin |
South America | |
Translation |
Francis Vandersteen |
| The possession of this animal is not authorized Royal Decree establishing the list of mammals not kept for production purposes that may be kept (M.B. 24.08.2009) |
| The Magellanic fox (Lycalopex culpaeus), also known as the Magellanic wolf or Andean fox, is commonly known as the culpeo in Argentina and Chile. It is the second largest living canid in South America, surpassed only by the maned wolf or aguará guazú in the Guarani language. It resembles the red fox with its reddish head and legs. Its belly, neck and mouth are white, and the fur on its back is gray with black stripes. The tail is abundantly covered with gray hairs that turn black at the tip. It is 80 cm long and weighs 13 kg. It lives in the meadows and deciduous woods of Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia and the Andes, reaching as far north as Ecuador. It feeds on rodents, rabbits, birds, lizards and, to a lesser extent, carrion. In some densely populated areas, it attacks flocks of sheep, which is why it was so severely hunted down by cattle breeders, who shot it or poisoned carrion. As a result, it has become rare in some regions, and in others it has been exterminated to the point of extinction. In the past, some Fuegian tribes domesticated the culpeo, resulting in the yagán dog. The Falklands wolf, extinct in the 19th century, was a large wolf-sized canid closely related to the culpeo. |
English (United Kingdom)