Canines Around the Globe Trivia Quiz

While there are multiple subspecies of coyote, all of them make their home in North America being spread around the continent and being capable of living in various types of ecosystems whether hot, cold, or otherwise. While coyotes were originally believed to be relegated to the western edge of the United States and Canada, the last centuries have pushed the coyote to spread across both countries and southward into Mexico and Central America. Native Americans and Canada's indigenous people both feature the coyote heavily in their folk tales and oral traditions. Unlike many other canines, they're not typically tameable.

One of only two animals in the Urocyon genus, the gray fox is only found in the United States and the southern edges of Canada (while its sister species, the island fox, is found only on the Channel Islands off the coast of California). Although the red fox is generally the more typical fox type seen by most people (especially in the media), the gray fox remains a very common canid in regions of North America though they tend not to live in colder stretches and mountainous areas (meaning they avoid going too far north).

Though there is also a South American gray fox, the two are only related by name; the Patagonian version, found far south in the hemisphere, is more related to a wolf than the traditional fox.

An Andean fox (though, like the South American gray fox, it's more like a wolf than an actual fox), the culpeo resides almost exclusively on the Western edges of the continent, on the one side of the Andes mountain range as it cuts along Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. One of the largest wild canids in South America, it was, at one time, domesticated by the people in the southern tip of Chile.

The culpeo shares many similarities with its rarer relative, the Sechuran fox, which only lives, nocturnally, in the desert stretches along the coast of Peru.

This one may be a given if you know that 'the pampas' refers to an ecological region of Argentina characterized by its open plains. The zorro de las pampas, as it may be known, can live up in the higher reaches of Argentina but typically makes its home below a certain altitude in scrublands and near the agricultural stretches that cross this part of South America, famous for its ranches. Though similar to the culpeo, these have different colouring and subtle variation in their facial structure.

Found throughout Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and parts of Argentina in its southern range, and in the very north of South American at its northern reach, the crab-eating fox lives interestingly as it inhabits a number of nations that have significant rainforest coverage but it, itself, does not live within the Amazon.

Instead, you'd be likely to find these dog-like 'foxes' in mudflats and floodplains, digging for crabs as an ideal part of its diet. This said, the crab-eating fox isn't too picky; these canids are actually omnivores; their selection is more vast than their name would imply.

Larger canid predators found throughout the north of Africa from Morocco all the way to Somalia, these animals have long-covered the region. Wolves like these appeared in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics as they were synonymous with golden jackals, their previous classification.

The modern day city of Asyut, situated on the Nile River and at one time known as Lycopolis, treated the wolf as sacred. Nowadays their range (across their subspecies) stretches all the way from the Mediterranean to the Serengeti.

Another opportunistic African canid, the black-backed jackal can be quite versatile with its habitat, living in deserts, savannahs, and bushland in the countries of East Africa, but also thriving in the wilds of Southern Africa. The two regions don't touch, however; entire nations have, historically, split their habitat regions and divided them into two subspecies: the Cape black-backed jackal and the East African black-backed jackal. Notable, these fox-like canids will eat almost anything they can grab and can be large enough (especially in packs) to bring down heavier animals in the savannah.

Although named after both the raccoon and dog, this canid is more closely-related to the fox. Known for climbing and sleeping in trees, these animals were originally isolated to East Asia (Japan, Korea, Russia, and China) but were introduced into mainland Europe only to become an invasive species in the twentieth century. Notably, raccoon dogs have been hunted for their fur, especially in Eastern Europe, in an effort to both curb overpopulation and bolster the fur industry.

Only found on the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal fox is often seen in a sandy colour with a black-tipped tail, allowing it to blend in quite well in all sorts of environments it may choose to live in. Generally these canids make their homes in the areas around deserts though they stretch west to east from Pakistan to Bangladesh and head as far as the southern tip of India.

They avoid passing the Himalayas, keeping them quite isolated. Bengal foxes are most active at night, choosing to hunt in cooler periods.

The only canid of the genus Cuon, the Dhole is defined by its unique skull shape and is native to a handful of regions in Southeast Asia, appearing in India, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia (especially on Sumatra and Java). Habitat loss has, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, restricted dhole spread; these animals used to reach as far north as Russia and the Korean Peninsula and as far west as the 'Stans. Due to their significance in the culture of many remaining regions, there have been numerous conservation efforts, especially at the turn of the century, to ensure healthy repopulation.