Crab-eating Fox - Diet (Availability & Nutritional Value)

There have been mixed findings on how much plant material the crab-eating fox will consume but many have found that it consumes at least 40% plant material. In the Tereza et al. study, they found that they mostly eat plants (59% of diet), 29% of that 59% is dwarf coconuts. For animal matter, they consume a large amount of small mammals, mostly rodents (22%), and snakes (7% of diet) with smaller amounts of birds and insects (such as grasshoppers and cockroaches) (24,8). Due to being an opportunistic omnivore, crab-eating foxes will occasionally eat carrion as well as garbage (9).

Of course, the crab-eating fox does also consume small invertebrates such as crabs (9,23), which is where its name originates.

Their diet varies seasonally, with it consisting mostly of small vertebrates (rodents and rabbits), crabs and insects during the dry season and insects, fruits, and small vertebrates during the wet season (10).

They also have been found to consume bird and reptile eggs during their reproduction period during the summer and spring months (19).