Scientists hail find of rare fox in Sierra Nevada

[n2doc]

By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer

Saturday, September 4, 2010

(09-04) 09:21 PDT Reno, Nev. (AP) --

Scientists are hailing the confirmed find of a Sierra Nevada red fox about 90 miles south of Reno, a native subspecies feared extinct in the range since the last verified sighting in 1990.

The fox was photographed Aug. 11 near Sonora Pass on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest by a motion-activated camera set up by U.S. Forest Service employees monitoring the activities of other wildlife.

DNA testing of saliva samples from a chicken-filled sock at the site found the fox is most likely a member of a remnant population of the subspecies in the Sierra, said Ben Sacks, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Davis, who conducted the tests.

"This is the most exciting animal discovery we've had in California since the discovery of a wolverine in the Sierra two years ago," Sacks said. "Only this time the unexpected critter turned out to be homegrown, which is truly big news."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/04/state/n092159D63.DTL

[xchrom]

1. Good on ya, Fox! Ever the sly one you are. Nt

[Merlot]

2. What a pose! that foxy little guy knows how to work the camera!

hopefully he's got lots of friends and family

[Kolesar]

3. Chicken in a sox is

The favorite of the foxes

[bvar22]

4. WOW....FOX NEWS !

The good kind. :)

[Tumbulu]

5. There is a red fox on my farm (I hope it is a family of them)

and folks who work for Ben have come out to get scat so they can test the dna. Pretty neat project, really.

My cousin observed them hanging out with the grazing sheep, protected by their guard llama. The fox would dart out and get ground squirrels and then go back and pretend to be a sheep again. The ground squirrels were apparently fooled into a false sense of security by the sheep and llama. This went on for a long time. I guess until Coyotes came too close.

I moved the sheep across a highway and away for the creekside that fox's are supposed to need and did not see any signs of the fox for 4 years. And them last spring it was back with the sheep up on my hill. It even came to tolerate me and I took to bringing it lambs that had died. But this was a bad idea as it only attracted Coyotes. I felt terrible when it went away, but now I found it's den in yet another place. And so I remain hopeful that it will stay. The sheep completely ignore it. The geese and chickens do not, however. But they have protection at night and there are so many ground squirrels.