New record of Blanford’s Fox Vulpes cana (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) in central Oman: a connection between the northern and southern populations

Abstract

The Blanford’s Fox Vulpes cana is known to be distributed in the Hajar Mountains and the mountains of Dhofar in northern and southern Oman, respectively. We report the first record of the Blanford’s Fox in Al Wusta Wildlife Reserve in central Oman. Despite a large survey effort of 169 camera traps set for 53,524 trap nights in an area of 5,400km2, only two camera traps detected Blanford’s Fox in a small area covering 46km2. The survey suggests that the population is small and possibly isolated, as the northern and southern Blanford’s Fox populations are 310km and 330km away, respectively.

Keywords

• al wusta wildlife reserve
• blanford’s fox
• camera trapping
• canid
• conservation
• sultanate of oman