Journal reference: Journal of Ethology, DOI: 10. The fennec fox is the smallest of all the worlds foxes, weighing only 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram). “My impression is that the gray foxes are stimulated by the strong odours left by the pumas and are depositing their own scent.”Īllen and his colleagues hope to use tags on some gray foxes to study whether foxes that have rubbed themselves in puma scent are more likely to survive predation. “Foxes use their saliva as scent and have glands in the region of the lips,” he says. Smelling like a puma might give them that time.”īut there may be another explanation, says Steve Harris, an ecologist who studies foxes at the University of Bristol in the UK. “In many cases, they probably only need a few seconds’ hesitation from a coyote for them to get up a tree. “Gray foxes climb trees to avoid predators,” says Allen. But Allen’s team says that predator avoidance seems the most likely hypothesis and is worth exploring further. They prefer to eat small rodents called lemmings, but when times. Adult red foxes may also be attacked by coyotes, wolves, or other predators, but. There are various reasons why foxes might do this. When its not trying to keep warm or avoid predators, an arctic fox is on the hunt for food. Pups are kept in and near a den and protected by their family to avoid this. native species, predation by foxes has also been. This suggests they were focused on applying puma scent onto themselves, rather than depositing their own scent. to Australia for recreational hunting in 1855 and fox populations became established in the wild in the. Allen’s video footage, however, showed the foxes rubbing themselves in the puma scrape five times more often than they did on shrubs or unmarked ground at those sites. Many animals rub their cheeks and bodies on stones, trees and the ground to leave their scent behind. The team did not see any similar behaviour from coyotes or bobcats, which also visited the sites far less frequently than the foxes. And 85 per cent of the foxes that exhibited this behaviour did so on spots where pumas had deposited their scent. The foxes have a hard time fighting back, so they use this to give themselves a chance to escape.”Īllen and his colleagues found 92 out of 903 documented visits by foxes involved cheek rubbing. “Coyotes are very reliant upon smell when hunting and are much bigger than the foxes. “The foxes rub very specifically on the areas where the pumas mark,” says Allen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |