Culpeo
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| Culpeo Conservation status: Lower risk | ||||||||||||||
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| Pseudalopex culpaeus (Molina, 1782) |
The culpeo is a South American species of wild dog. It is the second largest South American canid after the maned wolf. In its appearance it resembles a fox. It has grey fur, a white chin, reddish legs, and a stripe on its back which may be barely visible.
Its distribution extends from Ecuador and Peru to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. It is most common on the western slopes of the Andes, where it inhabits open country and deciduous forests.
Its diet consists of rodents, rabbits, birds, lizards, and, to a lesser extent, plants or carrion. Allegedly the culpeo attacks sheep and therefore it is often hunted or poisoned. In some regions it has become rare, but the species is not threatened with extinction.
The Falkland Island fox, now extinct, was probably closely related.