Corsac fox (Vulpes corsac)
For those of you who thought that this was a swift fox, you are very close. Corsac foxes, swift and kit foxes, and Arctic foxes are close relatives.
The corsacs are equivalent to the swift foxes of the North America prairies, for they are creatures of the steppes that run from Central Asia into Mongolia and China. (See range map).
It’s not a swift fox, but that species certainly quite similar in appearance.
[…] is a Corsac fox. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Darwin’s fox or Darwin’s zorroSome say […]
Hola Scottie
As you mention, these four foxes are close related. Swift fox and corsac fox are very similar and both represent of Parallel Convergence – for similar primitive DNA material – affect the same ecological factors, in this case it is space, extensive grasslands – preries, into the same medium geographic areas.
In according to current non-publish abstracts, corsac fox is the most relative to tibetan foxes, what are can be in future recognize even as subspecies of corsacs, despite different appearance. The future study are be urgently needed for unravelling the Vulpes phylogeography secrets.
I was going to talk about the Tibetan foxes, but I decided against it.
Have you seen the footage of them on documentary series Planet Earth?
They have an interesting head shape!
Animals with a Holarctic distribution have always fascinated me– even if it’s not a true Holarctic distribution.
For example, we have pikas in North America, but not the same ones as in Eurasia.