Editing Cape fox (section)

==Ecology==
===Diet===
Cape foxes are completely [[omnivorous]] and opportunists, feeding mainly on small mammals (such as [[rodent]]s) and [[insect]]s, but also commonly eating [[bird]]s, small [[reptile]]s, [[carrion]] and fruits.<ref name="Klare">{{cite journal |last1=Klare |first1=Unn |last2=Kamler |first2=Jan F. |last3=Macdonald |first3=David W. |title=Seasonal diet and numbers of prey consumed by Cape foxes Vulpes chama in South Africa |journal=Wildlife Biology |date=June 2014 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=190–195 |doi=10.2981/wlb.00006|s2cid=86020958 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Other food items include: gerbils; field mice and other small rodents, hares, birds; bird nestlings and eggs, diverse vegetable material, including wild fruit, berries, seeds, roots, and tubers; lizards, insects, such as white ants, beetles and their larvae, and locusts.<ref name="Sheldon"/> They may also consume larger mammals like [[steenbok]] (''Raphicerus campestris'') and other carnivores such as the yellow mongoose (''Cynictis penicillata'').<ref name="Lavoie"/>

While Cape foxes have been reported to kill livestock, the predation level is unknown.<ref name="Skinner"/><ref name="Klare"/> [[Domestic sheep]] (''Ovis aries'') may comprise as much as 16.6% volume of its stomach content, but it appears to prey only on very young lambs (less than 3 months old), otherwise they can only consume it as carrion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kok |first1=O. B. |last2=Nel |first2=J. A. J. |title=Convergence and divergence in prey of sympatric canids and felids: opportunism or phylogenetic constraint?: DIETS OF SYMPATRIC CANIDS AND FELIDS |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |date=24 November 2004 |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=527–538 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.2004.00409.x|doi-access=free }}</ref> They are known to [[cache (biology)|cache]] food in holes.<ref name="adw"/>

===Parasites and predators===
The Cape fox can be hunted by [[lion]]s (''Panthera leo'') and its young may be killed by the [[honey badger]] (''Mellivora capensis''). It is also sometimes preyed upon by [[black-backed jackal]]s (''Canis mesomelas'') and other predators, such as [[African leopard]]s (''Panthera pardus''), [[caracal]]s (''Caracal caracal''), and birds of prey, such as hawks and owls.<ref name="Lavoie"/>

It usually carries ''[[Echinococcus granulosus]]'' as an endoparasite and may be parasitised by [[fleas]].<ref name="Lavoie"/>