Currently recognized as a single
species, the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes has the widest natural distribution
of any terrestrial carnivore, possibly any terrestrial mammal. Its range spans
approximately 70 million square kilometres encompassing much of Europe, Asia
and North America and extending into North Africa, with an introduced
population in Australia. The Red Fox occupies a wide variety of ecosystems,
including forests, grasslands, deserts and agricultural and human-dominated environments.
Interestingly a recent study (see paper detail below) was conducted providing
the most geographically and genomically comprehensive study to date of the Red
Fox. Analysis from this study, including mitochondrial sequence of 1000
individuals suggested an ancient Middle Eastern origin for all extant Red Foxes
with demographic analyses indicated a major expansion in Eurasia during the
last glaciation 50,000 years ago. This was concluded as the most basal mtDNA
lineages primarily occurred in the Middle East, suggesting that the red fox
could have arisen in that region.
M. J. Statham et al. 2014. Range-wide
multilocus phylogeography of the red fox reveals ancient continental
divergence, minimal genomic exchange and distinct demographic histories. Molecular
Ecology 23; 4813–4830.