Also known as the common fox, wood fox, and forest fox, the crab eating fox is a species of canid that is found in South America. They can live in most environments in South America except they avoid the rainforests and extreme cold. They live predominantly in the savannas, woodlands, subtropical forests, prickly thickets, shrubby thickets, tropical savannas, and deciduous forests across the plains regions of Columbia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. The fox is an extremely common animal in its range although it has lost some of its territory to human interests. However, it doesn’t seem to mind roaming plantations or livestock pastures.

The crab eating fox is mostly grayish-brown in color, with areas of red on its face and legs, and a black tip on its ears and tail. They commonly reach an adult weight of 10 to 17 pounds (4.5 to 7.7 kilograms), and a body length of about 25.3 inches (64.3 centimeters). Living in pairs or solo, the crab eating foxing will often spend its days in dens taken from, or abandoned by other animals (despite their ability to dig their own burrows), growing active at dusk and living a nocturnal lifestyle.

This fox survives off a little bit of whatever, in the form of: lizards, birds, rodents, eggs, fruit, tortoises, crustaceans, carrion, and crabs (hence its name). It is also known to be easy to domesticate. The latter is perhaps due to its relation to the common domestic dog. Also in common with the common domestic dog, is the crab eating fox’s rituals of tail wagging, licking each other as a greeting, barking, hair standing on end when threatened, and whining when in trouble. Due to their pelts not being of great value, crab eating foxes are generally not farmed or captured.