Can anyone identify the species in those photos? Encountered in İzmir Turkey around 21:00 PM, scavenging human food refuse. The size is around that of an average adult stray dog.
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2$\begingroup$ Can't see in the pictures very well, but is there a reason you don't think it's an adult stray dog? $\endgroup$– Bryan Krause ♦Commented Sep 20 at 21:38
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$\begingroup$ It's a canid, looks like a fox to me (the tail is quite long). I'm curious as to why it matters. Are foxes rare where you are? $\endgroup$– anongoodnurseCommented Sep 21 at 2:03
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1 Answer
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As noted by others in the comments, this is most likely to be either a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) or a stray dog (Canis familiaris).
However, given that the photos, while poor in quality, show a distinct quite large fluffy tail, and what may well be dark ears (could also be shadows on the rear surface), I think this is a common red fox. Foxes are a very successful species that is common throughout the whole of Europe and northern Asia. They have adapted well to cities and are quite common in urban areas where they survive on rats, mice and other similar urban creatures as well as scavenging from rubbish/trash.
There are quite a few colour variations in fox fur, from a red through to white and tan. This looks like one of the lighter variants, possibly middle top or middle bottom in the image below:
Image attribution: Darwin Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
