Supposedly extinct red fox discovered near Yosemite National Park

[The Straight Story]

Supposedly extinct red fox discovered near Yosemite National Park

The genetic signature of canine slobber on a bait bag of chicken scraps and a fuzzy photograph snapped by a motion-sensitive camera north of Yosemite National Park have confirmed the existence of a supposedly extinct red fox, the U.S. Forest Service announced this week.

“The last known sighting of a Sierra Nevada red fox in the Sonora Pass area was sometime in the 1920s,” said Mike Crawley, Bridgeport District ranger. “Needless to say, we are quite surprised and excited by this find.”

Federal wildlife technicians Emily Crowe and Julien Pellegrini were checking hundreds of photographs when they came across an over-exposed image taken at 2:17 a.m. on Aug. 11 of what appeared to be the rare red fox with a characteristic white-tipped tail trying to get at the bait bag dangling from a tree.

The Sierra Nevada red fox (vulpes vulpes necator) lives at high elevations, eating small mammals and birds. They have a reddish-colored head, back, and sides; black backs of the ears; black "socks" on their feet, and a white-tipped tail.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/verdict-is-in-on-pg.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Red fox are common in many areas of the US...

So, is this an extremely specific species of red fox or is this article really poorly worded and they meant to say no longer present in the area or something along those lines, rather than "extinct"?

[LARED]

2. I agree. I saw what I am pretty sure was a red fox

a few years ago while deer hunting, in NJ.

[Schema Thing]

3. the former

[Mendocino]

4. Red Fox-Vulpes Vulpes

Sierra Nevada Red Fox-Vulpes Vulpes Necator

a sub-species