According to The Telegraph on September 13, the fox-dog hybrid was hit by a car in the city of Vacaria, Brazil in 2021 and was taken to a veterinary hospital for care, but the staff did not know whether it was a dog or a fox.
Fox dog hybrid found in Brazil
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The animal's appearance and fox-like features caught the attention of local scientists , who analyzed the animal's genome.
According to a recently published research report, the animal's mother is a South American prairie fox and its father is a domestic dog. Scientists believe this is the first recorded fox-dog hybrid in the world .
The animal is about the size of a medium-sized dog, with large, pointed ears, a long muzzle with a black nose, brown eyes, and a dense black-brown coat, speckled with white and gray.
The animal has features similar to a dog and a fox.
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The animal was named "graxorra" and "dogxim" by researchers, a combination of the Portuguese names for fox and female dog.
According to the research team, the animal resembled both a fox and a dog in appearance and behavior, and was wary of strangers but gradually became friendly. It did not eat normal food, but only ate live rodents. It barked like a dog but had thick, dark fur like a fox.
A dog has 78 chromosomes and a prairie fox has 74. Scientists say the hybrid of the two species has 76 chromosomes, which is the same number of chromosomes as the animal that was found.
The animal was cared for at the veterinary hospital of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. After recovering, it was transferred to a conservation center in the city of Santa Maria but died this year, the cause of which is unknown.
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