One of the first infodumps I’m putting here is something that irks me very much, and that is the “vulpine vs canine” debate you often see in online comment sections wherever foxes are involved.
So what is a fox? Easy answer, right? A fox is a vulpine canid.
This is true, yes, but a fox is also canine.
How can this be true, you ask? How can a fox be canine if it is vulpine.
Easy. This whole thing is a relatively new conclusion people have come to and I can only assume it must have come from somebody who came up with their own idea of what canid, canine and vulpine must mean, and it spread as common knowledge over the internet. So let’s clear up some things.
First, “vulpine” and “canine” are colloquial terms. This means they are not the formal scientific way to describe foxes or canids, just as the word “lupine” is only a word to describe something that reminds one of a wolf, or “wolflike.” Foxes are in fact, vulpine, because they are foxes. The word quite literally is in reference to all things reminding one or relating to a fox. For example, the word vulpine may be used in this way:
“My shiba inu has a vulpine face.”
Canine is similar, though it is widely used almost exclusively in reference to the canidae family. This does not mean it refers ONLY to the canine family.
The next misconception is that the word “canine” is referring only to the genus canis, which I think is probably just because it shares a prefix with that word. Whoever started this misconception must have drawn the connection to the shared prefixes of the words “vulpine” and “vulpes”, and the words “canine” and “canis” and came to the conclusion that those two words correspond to the two genre. This isn’t true. These words all share similar prefixes because the prefixes come from the Latin words for “fox” and “dog” (not exclusively referring to domestic dogs), and not because they are mutually exclusive to the canis and vulpes genre. “Vulp” and “canes/cani” prefixes are going to be referring to or relating to foxes and dogs or things that remind one of them, whether they actually are related to them or not.
So then what is a canine? Well simple. The word technically can be used for anything that reminds somebody of a canid. If my cat had a face that reminded me of a jackal or some other canid, I could say my cat had a canine face. Again, the word canine and vulpine are colloquial. Common words. Non scientific. A fox is vulpine because he himself is fox-like, because of course he is a fox. He is also canine, because he is and appears to be related to dogs.
What is the difference between the word “canid” and “canine”.
Since I’ve established that “canine” isn’t a scientific term for animals within the canis genus, which is a wide misconception, and just means anything that is doglike, relating to dogs (yes, this includes anything in the family of canidae), this one should be easy to explain. Canine is a colloquial descriptive word that is commonly used to describe animals in the canidae family specifically, but also means anything that reminds one of a dog, even if it isn’t actually a dog. It means “dog-like”. Canid, is a more scientifically proper word for members of the family canidae. A fox is a canid, a wolf is a canid, a dhole is a canid and of course, your own domestic dog is a canid.
So to wrap this little essay all up, yes a fox is vulpine, but so is my neighbors Pomeranian. The fox is also canine, because he’s in the family of canidae, which contains doglike creatures. Your domestic dog is canine, and so is that baby raccoon you saw by the dumpster, who’s little face reminded you of a puppy’s.
Foxes are canids who are vulpine and also canine.
Here is a rather vulpine looking dog, and a canine looking cat and of course, a canine and vulpine canid, the red fox.
