A forest-specialist carnivore in the middle of the desert?Comments on https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.5230.

Darío Moreira‐Arce,Ariel A Farías,Javier Millán,Constanza Napolitano,Ezequiel Hidalgo‐Hermoso,Guillermo D’Elía,Eduardo A Silva‐Rodríguez,Javier Cabello

doi:10.1002/ece3.6132

Abstract

We present comments on an article recently published in Ecology and Evolution (“High‐resolution melting of the cytochrome B gene in fecal DNA: A powerful approach for fox species identification of the Lycalopex genus in Chile”) by Anabalon et al. that reported the presence of Darwin's fox (Lycalopex fulvipes), a temperate forest specialist, in the hyperarid Atacama Desert of northern Chile. We argue that this putative record lacks ecological support in light of ongoing research on this endangered species, and contains numerous methodological flaws and omissions related to the molecular identification of the species. Based on these issues, we suggest the scientific community and conservation decision‐makers disregard the alleged presence of the Darwin's fox in the Atacama Desert.

Highlights

Diverse studies have shown that the species is consistently associated with native forest (Farias & Jaksic, 2011; Jiménez, Marquet, Medel, & Jaksic, 1991; MoreiraArce, Vergara, & Boutin, 2015; Silva-Rodríguez et al, 2018) and to areas with high understory cover (Moreira-Arce et al, 2016), other nearby ecosystems—such as beaches and dunes near to primary forest—can be used (Jiménez, 2007)
We find this remarkable given that the putative new record is from a desert
The findings of Anabalon et al are not presented alongside the contemporary understanding of Chilean fox species ecology

Summary

Introduction

The ongoing vertebrate population declines reported in the Living Planet Report (WWF, 2018) challenges conservationists and environmental agencies to provide reliable information, on endangered species, to inform decisions and help to achieve conservation goals. Problems include the inadequate usage of available knowledge on Chilean canids and the plausible explanations for the putative new record of Darwin's fox, aspects of study design, the lack of reported controls and validation analyses, and failure to consider basic aspects of molecular-based organism identification.

Results

Conclusion