Presence of the crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous in La Rioja, Argentina, and implications for its geographic and environmental niche modeling

FARIÑAS TORRES, THAMARA; SCHIAFFINI, MAURO; CIRIGNOLI, SEBASTIAN; CHEMISQUY, MARÍA AMELIA

MAMMALIA

WALTER DE GRUYTER & CO

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2024 vol. 0

0025-1461

The crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous is one ofSouth America’s most common species of canids; its generalisthabits and plasticity allowed the species to adapt tonumerous habitats and human presence. In 2020, we registereda specimen of C. thous on a trap camera placed in thevicinity of the Huaco River in La Rioja Province, Argentina.This record was the starting point for evaluating past andpresent environmental niche models (ENMs) of the speciesthroughout their entire distribution in South America. ENMsmodels suggest that the presence of C. thous in La Rioja haslow suitability values and suggest that we may be facing asink population scenario due to the low frequency of recordsin the province. Also, the model indicated that the parametersdelimiting the areas with the highest suitability valuesare related to temperature, isothermality, and precipitation.Long-term studies in the region are needed to determine thepopulation dynamics of C. thous in La Rioja