A group of specialists revealed it in Brazil. There is a new hybrid between dog and fox. It is known as dogxim. His appearance and behavior baffled scientists from the beginning. The animal did not look like any canid they had seen before.
He barked like a dog, and his eyes and dark fur resembled a dog’s. But his pointed ears and long snout suggested otherwise. He didn’t want to try dog food either, just little rats.
Chromosomes
«He was not as docile as a dog. But he also did not have the aggressiveness that is expected of a wild canid when handled. It was declared by a conservationist who helped care for the creature. The curious animal was found in 2021 in Vacaria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
This region of South America is known to be home to four species of canids. None of these specific animals match the rescued dog either in appearance or genetics. Genetic testing of the rescued creature suggests it is, in fact, a hybrid between a pampas fox and a domestic dog. It is an extremely rare case of reproduction of two species of different genera. «These species diverged about 6.7 million years ago and belong to different genera. But they could still produce viable hybrids,” the researchers write in their published article.
Specialists discovered that the rescued animal had 76 chromosomes in total. They had a visual appearance similar to those of domestic dogs and the pampas fox. It also has two X chromosomes with two different morphologies, coming from two different species.
Sad ending
It is assumed that his mother was probably the pampas fox and his father a dog. «So far, we have no scientific evidence that there are other hybrids in this region. However, we suspect that this case we have described is not the only one.”
The discovery of a new hybrid between dog and fox had a cruel twist to the story. The animal died under unknown circumstances in a zoo. Authorities are now reportedly investigating how and why this unique creature died.