It makes sense that we don’t know every creature at the bottom of the ocean. Getting there is expensive and extremely dangerous. But when it comes to a creature on land, it’s hard to imagine one that we have never photographed before. That seems to be exactly what happened back in 2023, when scientists snapped a picture of the critically endangered Cozumel dwarf fox for the first time ever. And it’s adorable.
According to a study published in Neotropical Biology and Conservation, researchers confirmed the first photographic evidence of the sly fox on Mexico’s island of Cozumel. This also marks the first verified sighting of the fox in almost two decades, the last one dating back to 2001. It had been so long that researchers feared it was extinct.
Then, on September 14, 2023, Cozumel residents reported a seemingly disoriented fox near a coastal Highway. Rafael Chacón, Director of Cozumel’s parks and museums, went looking for it himself, camera in hand. He not only snagged a picture of it, but he and a small team were able to capture the dwarf fox itself to bring it in for veterinary observation.
After it was deemed healthy, it was released back into the wild at a very specific spot, far away from any roads, and somewhere the researchers suspect might be its natural habitat.
Island dwarfism is a simple but fascinating idea wherein an animal living on a small, isolated island is naturally smaller than its landlocked relatives. It’s a small fish in a small pond kind of thing.
The Cozumel dwarf fox’s closest relative is the classic gray fox, from which it evolved into a much smaller counterpart after getting isolated on the island thousands of years ago, with some evidence suggesting that it may have separated from mainland foxes anywhere between 5,000 and 37,000 years ago.
Other than all that, scientists don’t know much about the species. There have never been any surveys specifically of foxes conducted on the island, so researchers have no idea how many there were, or what their genetics look like, or whether they even qualify as a distinct species. All we know is that there is at least one of them still roaming around, and that habitat loss and natural disasters seem to be contributing to their dwindling numbers.
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