Red foxes in Japan show adaptability in prey resource according to geography and season: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the world's most widespread member of the order Carnivora, occurring across a large range of latitudes and inhabiting multiple habitat types. There is no comprehensive study of how the diets of this flexible generalist vary across the whole Asian continent. We conducted a meta‐analysis of red fox diets in Japan, examining the patterns in food type selection and their associations with seasonality, regional climate, vegetation productivity, and human influences at the national scale. Using linear mixed models, we revealed significant seasonal effects on the frequency of occurrence of mammals in general, ungulate carcasses, birds, and invertebrates in the diets of red foxes. Furthermore, the frequency of occurrence of mammals significantly decreased with mean annual temperature and increased with vegetation productivity. The frequency of invertebrate occurrences increased with temperature, and that of anthropogenic foods increased with human population density. Trophic diversity and dietary niche breadth increased with annual temperature but decreased with vegetation productivity and population density. These results suggest that the red fox is a flexible predator in Japan that adapts its foraging patterns according to variations in resource availability and abiotic conditions, while persistently consuming a certain ratio of animal prey to meet its metabolic requirements. Modifications of predators' trophic niches can influence structures of prey communities and interactions with sympatric competitors. Our findings are important for informing ecosystem management practices under ongoing environmental and social changes in Japan.

Distinctive diets of eutherian predators in Australia

“…Foxes have a diverse, generalist diet [137][138][139], opportunistically taking both live prey and carrion of different sizes and types [23,79,140], and feeding on substantial amounts of plant material and invertebrates. Of the 11 food items cumulatively making up 80% of the fox's diet, invertebrates were the most frequently recorded category, while the high incidence of plant material was distinctive to royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Soc.…”

Food Habits of Feral Dogs and Red Foxes in a New Endemic Area of Echinococcus multilocularis

“…In (Romig et al 2017). Red foxes also consume small mammals including arvicoline rodents as an important food source in many other areas of Japan (Tsukada 1997;Hisano et al 2022). In previous surveys on the Chita Peninsula (Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health 2023), no Echinococcus-positive individuals were found among red foxes.…”

“…Small arvicolines including Microtus rodents have predominantly become important intermediate hosts throughout the northern hemisphere where E. multilocularis is endemic, e.g., Microtus arvalis and M. agrestis in temperate Europe, M. agrestis , M. obscurus , M. oeconomus , M. gregalis , and M. limnophilus in temperate Asia, and M. pennsylvanicus in temperate North America, M. oeconomus and M. gregalis in Arctic and subarctic regions (Romig et al 2017). Red foxes also consume small mammals including arvicoline rodents as an important food source in many other areas of Japan (Tsukada 1997; Hisano et al 2022). In previous surveys on the Chita Peninsula (Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health 2023), no Echinococcus- positive individuals were found among red foxes.…”

Seasonal variation in dietary patterns and trophic niche overlap among three sympatric medium-sized carnivores in a cool-temperate zone

“…Understanding the relationship between carnivore communities and environmental conditions is essential for ecosystem management under ongoing global environmental change (Hisano et al 2021). Many carnivores shift their foraging strategies in response to the surrounding environment, such as food abundance and climatic conditions (e.g.…”

“…The study mainly focused on red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ), Japanese martens ( Martes melampus ), and raccoon dogs ( Nyctereutes procyonoides ), which co-occur in the cool-temperate zone of Japan (Watabe & Saito 2021, 2022, Suzuki & Saito 2023). They are likely to be potentially competitive interactions (Donadio & Buskirk 2006) because of their taxonomy, body size (Ohdachi et al 2015), and dietary similarities (raccoon dog: Sutor et al 2010, red fox: Hisano et al 2021, Japanese marten: Hisano et al 2019, Tsuji et al 2019). Their temporal niche overlap is also relatively high (Watabe & Saito 2021, 2022, Watabe et al 2022).…”