Presence of the crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous in La Rioja, Argentina, and implications for its geographic and environmental niche modeling

Abstract

The crab-eating fox Cerdocyon thous is one of South America’s most common species of canids; it generalist habits and plasticity allowed the species to adapt to numerous habitats and human presence. In 2020, we registered a specimen of C. thous on a trap camera placed in the vicinity of the Huaco River in La Rioja Province, Argentina. This record was the starting point for evaluating past and present Environmental Niche Models (ENMs) of the species throughout their entire distribution in South America. ENMs models suggest that the presence of C. thous in La Rioja has low suitability values and suggest that we may be facing a sink population scenario due to the low frequency of records in the province. Also, the model indicated that the parameters delimiting the areas with the highest suitability values are related to temperature, isothermality, and precipitation. Long-term studies in the region are needed to determine the population dynamics of Cerdocyon thous in La Rioja.