High Sierra Topix

from the San Francisco Chronicle

Call it "CSI: Sierra Nevada." On Aug. 11, a mysterious creature took a bite out of a bait bag slung in a secluded pass north of Yosemite National Park. As the animal gnawed on the bits of chicken contained in the sock, a remote-controlled camera clicked nearby.

A few weeks later, geneticists at UC Davis extracted saliva samples from the fabric, ran a series of DNA tests and found that they had stumbled upon one of the most elusive mammals in North America--a Sierra Nevada red fox.

The saliva and blurry photographs from the Sonora Pass were the first recorded evidence of the carnivore in the region since the 1920s, when the lucrative fur trade all but eliminated the population outside of a tiny clan in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The only other known specimens are pelts and bones stored at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

The rest of the article is here.

I remember seeing a red fox every great once in a while as a kid - all those summers on Sonora Pass we were out camping and fishing, we saw lots of critters, ospreys, owls, all kinds, and thought nothing of it. Had no idea red fox were so rare until last year when I ran across some article that said so....

And the DFG survey on the Sierra Nevada Red fox is still open per viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5100&p=31590" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Russ

I saw that on the TV too, pretty cool.
Thanks for the link to the DFG site Rlown.

looks like they spotted two more in the Sonora Pass area..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101204/ap_ ... sierra_fox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

F&G is now conceding the probable existence of wolves in the Warner Mountains of Modoc County. Locals have been reporting them for several years but F&G discounted the sightings as coyotes (I think most ranchers know a coyote when they see one, as well as Forest Service and BLM biologists. ).

The wolf population in eastern Oregon and the Blues has been steadily increasing for a while. A few animals migrating to the Warners is a logical extension.