Good News ! :
Photo: Sierra Nevada red fox in Lassen Peak region/Keith Slausen, US Forest Service
Supposedly extinct red fox discovered near Yosemite National Park – LA Times
Brian Ertz
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That is good news.
Brian – what differentiates this red fox from the little fox I see running out by my house? He/she is red, but not sure what category of fox.
i think this fox is more wiley and despite its size has evolved a remarkable ability to predate exclusively on large ungulates including domestic livestock, elk, deer, and human children …
it was also secretly dropped in from Canada by Defenders of Wildlife’s lesser known eco-guerilla-ops division, which is why it has been missing until now.
a little bird suggests that the goal will be to list the fox under the Endangered Species Act with the sole purpose of the fox serving as Defenders’ surrogate to eradicate livestock grazing and hunting on public lands …
far as i can tell, these distinctive and ecologically paramount characteristics alone warrant classification as a separate species, thus protection under the Endangered Species Act.
😉
Too bad some golden grizzlies couldn’t be rediscovered in Yosemite National Park.
Brian, those massive Canadian foxes are pretty dangerous. Are they going to put some signs up? 🙂
Virginia-
In reality, many biologists figured that foxes were very rare in CA in the past. The Sierra Nevada red fox, Vulpes vulpes necator, was long considered to be the only native species of red fox in the state; all other, “lowland” red foxes were thought to be descendants of escaped fur-farm foxes. However, there is a caveat below.
Habitat is the main differentiator between the Sierra Nevada red and other foxes; it prefers a montane habitat, as do two other populations of red foxes that may form a metapopluation with this subspecies; the Rocky Mountain and Cascades red foxes. All three subspecies were isolated by glaciation about 12,000 years ago.
Recently, genetic studies have shown that the Sacramento red fox, V. v. patwin, is actually a separate subspecies that belongs to this metapopulation, not a non-native red fox. Lots of interesting technical info here- http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/cdcg/documents/Sacksetal2010-ConsGen_000.pdf