I have recently been seeing a few Arabian Red
Foxes in Dhahran, a sight I always treasure. The Red Fox is currently
recognized as a single species and 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 of 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. The Arabian Red fox has very large ears for its
size and is very thin and sandy coloured compared to the European Red Fox, and
look very different.
