Observations on a Domesticated Peruvian Desert Fox, Dusicyon

Abstract

The following observations were made while Mrs. Birdseye and I were living at the Hacienda Paramonga, on the Inter-American Highway 192 kilometers north of Lima, Peru. The Hacienda comprises a large sugar estate occupying the irrigated, combined lower valleys of the Pativilca and Fortaleza rivers. On the west the estate is washed by the Pacific Ocean, on the north and south it is sharply cut off by the nearly plantless desert, and on the east it ascends the river valleys into the dry and rocky foothills of the Andes. The region is rainless but humid, and heavy mists, particularly during the winter, cause total annual precipitation of about one inch. Dusicyon abounds in this section of the Peruvian coast, being equally at home in the rich cultivated areas, the nearly lifeless desert, the foothills and the bird-rich beaches. It is largely nocturnal and is frequently seen in car headlights, but I have never seen a car-killed fox. Food of course varies with habitat: rodents, insects, small birds and eggs, poultry once in a while, and such fruits as bananas, guavas, chitimoyas, grapes, papayas and mangoes in cultivated areas; crabs, dead fish and sea birds on the beaches, and the eggs and young of sea birds in the rookeries. What these foxes eat and drink in the waterless and semi-lifeless deserts I cannot guess, except that lizards are more or less available everywhere. All the young foxes—three litters—with which we have personally come into contact have been born in October or November, and at least one litter was dug from a rocky hillside on the edge of irrigated fields given over to sugar cane and bananas. In late November, 1953, three Dusicyon pups, freshly dug from a hillside den, were offered to the Chief Engineer of Paramonga and refused. My wife …