The recent announcement of the discovery of a dog-fox hybrid, the so-called “dogxim,” was strange and adorable and a little otherworldly. But scientists warn that such crossbreeds are generally evidence of nature going awry under pressures created by humans.
As agriculture and other forms of human development encroach on natural areas, wild and domesticated animals (not to mention people and their automobiles) are frequently coming into close contact with each other.
In the case of dogxim, the medium-sized animal was hit by a car in Vacaria in Southern Brazil, a small city of about 66,000. Vacaria is surrounded by rugged farm fields and patches of forest, and four different species of canids live in the area, the Rio Grande do Sul State.
Upon inspection, an academic team from two different local universities determined that the animal was a hybrid between a domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) and the sandy-coated pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus).
