For more than two decades, no one had seen the elusive dwarf fox, leading scientists to believe that the creature might have gone extinct.
But in September 2023, a dwarf fox was spotted near a highway in Cozumel, Mexico, confirming that these foxes are still alive. However, they are likely at high risk of dying out.
Dwarf foxes live only on the island of Cozumel, which is near Cancun. They are about 20% to 40% smaller than their relative, the gray fox.
Gray foxes have lived on Cozumel for thousands of years, but scientists think they have evolved over time to become smaller than the ones that live on the mainland.
The phenomenon is called insular dwarfism. Islands have less space and limited resources, causing larger animals that colonize islands to shrink over time.
Foxes aren’t the only mammals on Cozumel to have experienced this evolutionary process. The same thing happened to the critically endangered pygmy raccoons and dwarf coatis. They are recognized as distinct species/subspecies unique to Cozumel.
However, the dwarf foxes have never been formally recognized as a distinct species. Sightings are rare, and the last confirmed observation, until now, was in 2001.
Archaeological evidence suggests that Cozumel foxes have lived on the island for at least 5,000 years. Ancient remains have been excavated from Maya archaeological sites.
“The biggest challenge facing the Cozumel fox is that we still know almost nothing about it, including its remaining population size, distribution, or ecology,” said Travis Bayer, the first author of the study and the executive director of the conservation organization Pathos Wildlife.
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“That uncertainty alone is dangerous because it makes effective conservation extremely difficult.”
The rediscovery of the dwarf fox all started with reports of a disoriented animal wandering along the highway on the southeastern side of the island.
On September 14, 2023, officials with the Parks and Museums Foundation of Cozumel rescued the creature and checked its health. It was an adult male dwarf fox.
They released the fox three days later in the Laguna Colombia State Reserve in southern Cozumel. The latest sighting further proves that the foxes have a limited range on the island.
They appear to be restricted to southern Cozumel, where they face several threats, including increasing development, land-use change, vehicle collisions, natural disasters, and predation by invasive species.
Now that a dwarf fox has been spotted, researchers are calling for surveys to be conducted in order to determine the current distribution and size of the population, as well as conservation efforts, including morphological and genetic studies to establish evolutionary status and protect its habitat.
“Ultimately, we hope this work helps move the Cozumel fox from a little-known, uncertain presence on the island to a better-understood key part of Cozumel’s ecosystems,” said Bayer.
“We also hope it demonstrates that conservation is often most urgent when certainty is lowest and that uncertainty itself can be a call to action.”
The new findings were published in the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
