Pseudalopex: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Pseudalopex is the genus name for South American members of the Canidae family. It literally means false fox, from the Latin Pseudo and Greek lopex. The common name for the genus is zorro, from the Spanish word for fox. The most numerous species of Pseudalopex is probably Pseudalopex griseus, a grey zorro with large ears and highly marketable, russet-fringed pelt.

See also Pseudalopex culpeo.

Pseudalopex fulvipes, or Darwin's zorro, is either a species or a subspecies of South American fox. Locals informed Darwin that this zorro was unique to Chiloë Island, off the coast of Chile, where he captured one in 1831. Debate over its status, either as a species or an insular subspecies, deepened with the recent discovery of a small population on the mainland in Nahuelbuta National Park. Mitochondrial DNA analysis tends to confirm Darwin's supposition.