Vulpes macrotis Merriam 1888

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 584

Vulpes macrotis Merriam 1888

Vulpes macrotis Merriam 1888 , Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 4: 136.

Type Locality: "Riverside, San Bernardino county, California " .

Vernacular Names: Kit Fox.

Synonyms: Vulpes arizonensis Goldman 1931 ; Vulpes arsipus Elliot 1904 ; Vulpes devius Nelson and Goldman 1909 ; Vulpes muticus Merriam 1902 ; Vulpes neomexicanus Merriam 1902 ; Vulpes nevadensis Goldman 1931 ; Vulpes tenuirostris Nelson and Goldman 1931 ; Vulpes zinseri Benson 1938 .

Distribution: USA (S and C California, Nevada, SE Oregon, SW Idaho, W Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and W Texas).

Conservation: U.S. ESA – Endangered as V. macrotis mutica .

Discussion: Reviewed by Egoscue (1979) and McGrew (1979). Revised by Waithman and Roest (1977) and Dragoo et al. (1990). Blair et al. (1968), Lechleitner (1969), Bueler (1973), and Dragoo et al. (1990) considered macrotis and velox conspecific. Packard and Bowers (1970), Rohwer and Kilgore (1973), Thornton and Creel (1975) (who found hybrids between velox and macrotis but concluded they were of reduced viability) and Mercure et al. (1993) retained both as separate species. Mercure et al. (1993) argued that the genetic differences between macrotis and velox were similar to that of Vulpes vulpes and V. lagopus and therefore argued that they should be recognized at the species level (followed here). Synonyms allocated according to Mercure et al. (1993).