Preferences for Specific Food Species of the Red FoxVulpes vulpesin Abashiri, Eastern Hokkaido

Abstract

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) uses various food items such as mammals, birds, fishes, insects, and fruits, as well as garbage from human activities (Abe 1975; Misawa 1979; Tsukada 1997). In addition, the diet of the red fox varies according to habitat and season, probably due to food availability. On the other hand, the red fox has been reported to prefer specific food items. Yoneda (1979), for instance, stated that the red fox might prefer the gray red-backed vole (Myodes rufocanus bedfordiae) to the large Japanese field mouse (Apodemus speciosus ainu). According to this report, the foxes ate more gray red-backed voles than large Japanese field mice, even though field mice were more abundant than voles in their habitats. The red fox’s preferences for small rodents have been reported in many papers (Errington 1935, 1937; Southern and Watson 1941; Cook and Hamilton 1944; Korschgen 1959; Lever 1959; Englund 1965). Although most of these studies compared the proportions of prey species in the fox’s diet (assessed by fecal and stomach analyses) with the population densities of each prey species, only a few studies determined the preferences by using empirical method, such as feeding experiments (Macdonald 1977). In addition, Misawa (1979) reported that the red fox might prefer tara vine (Actinidia arguta) fruit to crimson glory vine (Vitis coignetiae) fruit from fecal analysis results and his consideration was also suggested by the proportion of fruits eaten by the red foxes. In the present study, we therefore tested the food preferences of the red fox for specific species in two groups by conducting feeding experiments in Hokkaido, Japan.