The documentation of a Pale Fox in southern Algeria using camera traps adds to previous records of the species, which were mainly based on roadkill observations.
La documentation d’un Renard pâle dans le sud de l’Algérie à l’aide de pièges photographiques s’ajoute aux enregistrements précédents de l’espèce, qui étaient principalement basés sur des observations d’animaux tués sur les routes.
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In a recent naturalist trip to southern Algeria, members of the Algerian Wildlife Watchers Association (AWWA) documented the first live specimen of Pale Fox (Vulpes pallida) in Algeria. The fox was recorded using a camera trapping (see the video).
AWWA members communicated with Koen de Smet and John Newby, who confirmed the identification of the fox.
Until now, it’s believed that previous records concerned roadkills.
In May 2020, the North African Big Carnivores Stichting shared a photo (below) of a roadkill far away from Algeria’s southern borders, and accompanied it by this comment:
Pale fox north of the Hoggar and Tassili massifs!!
Professor U. Joger from Braunschweig in Germany sent us this photo of a Pale fox, crushed on the road in the Illizi region a few years ago.
This coincides with the 1985 observation by Michel Leberre (from the book Mammals of the Sahara) at Anou Edjeré, 75 km west of Illizi. Until now, the Pale fox was considered purely Sahelian, and would only reach Algeria via the borders of Niger and Mali.
So, the Pale Fox becomes the third fox species recorded in the deep south, alongside the Rüppell’s Fox and the Fennec.
