The culpeo is a South American species of wild dog. It is the second largest South American canid after the maned wolf. In its appearance it resembles a fox. It has grey fur, a white chin, reddish legs, and a stripe on its back which may be barely visible.
Its distribution extends from Ecuador and Peru to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. It is most common on the western slopes of the Andes, where it inhabits open country and deciduous forests.
Its diet consists of rodents, rabbits, birds, lizards, and, to a lesser extent, plants or carrion. Allegedly the culpeo attacks sheep and therefore it is often hunted or poisoned. In some regions it has become rare, but the species is not threatened with extinction.
Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.
Its population in Northern Chile was badly hit by drought, which cause the breeding lagoon areas to dry up, either preventing nest building, or allowing predation especially from the Culpeo Fox, Pseudalopexculpaeus.
Andean Flamingos, like all the group, feed by filtering small items from water with their specialised bills.
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