DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10648030
title: Body mass of 30 Canids

description: Abstract:

Bergmann's rule states that warmer climates tend to be inhabited by smaller species than colder climates. This would imply that climate change will impact species' body size and therefore bodymass (Teplitsky & Millien, 2013). Larger carnivors are highly threatened by climate change as most of them are keystone species in their environments (Wolf & Ripple, 2016) which is why I decided to take a closer look at canids. Does Bergmann's rule apply to canids? Does that mean that certain canids are more lickely to suffer from climate change than others? It is to answer these questions that I had a look at the body mass of 30 different canid species, chosen at random from a list by Padilla & Hilton (2015), to avoid any biases. For each species chosen at random, I went into google scholar and searched for "latin species name body mass" and skimmed for any relevant results. If no relevant results showed I'd then look up the terms "latin species name body weight". Early on in my research I found the "Canids: Foxes, wolves, jackals, and dogs: Status survey and conservation action plan" by Sillero-Zubiri et al. (2004), which was used as a last resort when searching google scholar wasn't successful. The year in the column "Year of Study" is the year the data was collected in the studies where this information was available. Otherwise, I filled this column with the publication year. Coordinates were added in the appropriate columns when provided by the paper.

The above data was collected between the 1st of February 2024 and the 11th of February 2024.

 

References:

ASA, C., AND E. D. Cosstos. 2004. Sechuran fox. Pp. 69-72 in Canids: foxes, wolves, jackals and dogs. Status survey and conservation action plan (C. Sillero-Zubiri, M. Hoffmann, and D. W. Macdonald, eds.). International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources/Species Survival Commission Canid Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland.

Dietz, J. M. (1984). Ecology and Social Organization of the maned wolf (Chrysocyon Brachyurus). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, (392), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00810282.392 

Feng ZJ, Cai GQ, Zheng CL (1986)  The Mammals of Xizhang: The Comprehensive Scientific Expedition to the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Academia, Sinica. Science Press, Beijing.

Fuglei, E., & Øritsland, N. A. (1999). Seasonal trends in body mass, food intake and resting metabolic rate, and induction of metabolic depression in Arctic Foxes ( Alopex Lagopus ) at Svalbard. Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology, 169(6), 361–369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003600050232

Geffen, E., Degen, A. A., Kam, M., Hefner, R., & Nagy, K. A. (1992). Daily Energy Expenditure and water flux of free-living Blanford’s foxes (Vulpes cana), a small desert carnivore. The Journal of Animal Ecology, 61(3), 611. https://doi.org/10.2307/5616 

Głowaciński, Z., & Profus, P. (1997). Potential impact of wolves canis lupus on prey populations in eastern Poland. Biological Conservation, 80(1), 99–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3207(96)00067-5 

J. Grinnell , J.S. Dixon , and J.M. Linsdale . 1937. Furbearing mammals of California. Volume 2, pages 421–451. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Harrison, R. L. (2003). Swift Fox Demography, movements, Denning, and Diet in New Mexico. The Southwestern Naturalist, 48(2), 261–273. https://doi.org/10.1894/0038-4909(2003)048&lt;0261:sfdmda&gt;2.0.co;2 

Macdonald, D. W., & Courtenay, O. (1996). Enduring social relationships in a population of crab‐eating Zorros, Cerdocyon thous, in Amazonian Brazil (Carnivora, Canidae). Journal of Zoology, 239(2), 329–355. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1996.tb05454.x 

G. M O. Maloiy, J. M Z. Kamau, A. Shkolnik, M. Meir, and R. Arieli . 1982. Thermoregulation and metabolism in a small desert carnivore: the fennec fox (Fennecus zerda) (Mammalia). Journal of Zoology, London 198:279–291.

Moehlman, P.D., and H. Hofer. 1997. Cooperative breeding, reproductive suppression and body mass in Canids. In Cooperative breeding in mammals, ed. N.G. Solomon, and J.A. French, 76–128. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Murdoch, J. D., Munkhzul, T., Buyandelger, S., & Reading, R. P. (2009). Body size and sexual dimorphism among a population of corsac and Red Foxes in central Mongolia. Mammalia, 73(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/mamm.2009.012 

Newell-Fugate, A. E., O. Nöthling, J., & J. Bertschinger, H. (2012). Seasonal changes in steroid hormone profiles, body weight, semen quality, and the reproductive tract in captive African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in South Africa. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 178(2), 272–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2012.05.008 

Richens, V. B., & Hugie, R. D. (1974). Distribution, taxonomic status, and characteristics of Coyotes in Maine. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 38(3), 447. https://doi.org/10.2307/3800875

Sillero-Zubiri, C., Hoffmann, M., & Macdonald, D. W. (2004). Canids: Foxes, wolves, jackals, and dogs: Status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN--The World Conservation Union. 

Sillero-Zubiri, C., Rostro-García, S., & Burruss, D. (2016). Spatial Organization of the pale fox in the Termit Massif of east niger. Journal of Mammalogy, 97(2), 526–532. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv198 

Stuart, C.T. (1981). Notes on the mammalian carnivores of the Cape Province, South Africa. Bontebok 1,  1–58.

Teplitsky, C., & Millien, V. (2013). Climate warming and Bergmann’s rule through time: Is there any evidence? Evolutionary Applications, 7(1), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12129

J. Van Humbeck and N. Perez . 1998. Estudios del Jagua Yvyguy, Speothos venaticus, en el Centro de Investigacion de Animales Silvestres de Itaipu, CIASI. Superintendencia de Medio Ambiente de la Itaipu Binacional, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.

Vidal, E. L., Lucherini, M., Casanave, E., & Sillero-Zubiri, C. (2009). Morphometrics of pampas foxes (pseudalopex gymnocercus) in the Argentine pampas. Mammalia, 73(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/mamm.2009.013 

Warrick, G. D., & Cypher, B. L. (1999). Variation in body mass of San Joaquin Kit Foxes. Journal of Mammalogy, 80(3), 972–979. https://doi.org/10.2307/1383267 

Wolf, C., & Ripple, W. J. (2016). Prey depletion as a threat to the world’s large carnivores. Royal Society Open Science, 3(8), 160252. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160252

Williams, J. B., Lenain, D., Ostrowski, S., Tieleman, B. I., & Seddon, P. J. (2002). Energy expenditure and water flux of Rüppell’s foxes in Saudi Arabia. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 75(5), 479–488. https://doi.org/10.1086/344490 

ZHAN, Y., J. YASUDA, AND K. Too. 1991. Reference data on the anatomy and serum biochemistry of the silver fox. Japanese Journal of Veterinary Research, 39:39-50