Sierra Nevada Red Fox

[Frank T]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/28/382243042/rare-fox-takes-a-walk-in-the-park-and-yosemite-staff-cheer

[Andrew F]

Awesome. I've had two close fox (not red fox) encounters. Once while running at Pinnacles around dusk I stopped to enjoy the sunset and moments later a fox sauntered across the trail not 10 feet in front of me. Another time coming up the Snow Creek Trail in Yosemite a fox wanted to get up on the rim for the evening. He casually followed a switchback or two behind us for about ten minutes, then when we stopped to watch him he cut the corner of one of the switchbacks and continued up the trail past us. Beautiful animals.

[Bob Gross]

I'm trying to figure out the difference between a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and a Sierra Nevada red fox.

–B.G.–

[Greg Mihalik]

That's a healthy looking fox. I have to wonder how long it's been in the area.

As we've learned here, thanks to Kat, there are a lot of critters out there that go unnoticed until a trail cam is set up.

[Frank T]

I've never seen a fox in the Sierras in 40+ years of recreating there. I've seen foxes many times in my backyard in San Diego.

[Bob Gross]

In the summer of 2013, I was out solo in the Southern part of Yosemite N.P. I was walking at night using a headlamp, so it was about 10 p.m. All of a sudden, I heard an animal scream near me, and my first instinct was that it was a mountain lion. That was kind of exciting. Then I listened to it more and more as the animal moved around in the darkness. When I got home, I listened to some recorded animal calls and I figured out that it had been a gray fox.

A red fox is a much nicer-looking animal.

–B.G.–

[Ralph Burgess]

"I've never seen a fox in the Sierras in 40+ years of recreating there. I've seen foxes many times in my backyard in San Diego."

Likewise. Never in the Sierras, but I've seen a red fox crossing Piccadilly in Central London…

These are phenomenally successful animals – I just looked at the distribution of Vulpes vulpes on the Wiki article, and it encircles the globe, basically everywhere in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere.

There have been several great UK documentaries about urban foxes in Britain, the only one I can find so far is the recent BBC Fox Wars that's on youtube, but I'm pretty sure there was another amazing one from several years ago.

Also, the BBC TV show "Mongrels" is fantastic. An urban red fox is the lead protagonist… puppets, but most definitely not for children.

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