Wildwood welcomes new red fox

Wildwood is pleased to welcome Baxter, our new red fox.

The new addition brings number of red foxes at Wildwood to 3 and Baxter is getting on well with his new acquaintances, Wildwood residents Ellie and Chris.

Baxter was brought to Wildwood by The Fox Project, a charity based in Kent and the South East that helps sick and injured foxes and abandoned cubs, providing for their care, treatment and rehabilitation back to the wild.

Baxter, a young male, was rescued by the Fox Project team after being found abandoned as a cub. They cared for him until he was strong enough to fend for himself but sadly he is not suitable to be returned to the wild so has been brought to Wildwood to live with our existing foxes.

Wildwood’s head keeper Paul Wirdnam said “Wildwood has worked with the Fox Project for a number of years, their team do a fantastic job have rehabilitated thousands of foxes just like Baxter. We are very proud to work with them”

Baxter is now on display in Wildwood’s specially designed red fox enclosure and is just one of the huge range of British animals that can be seen at the Wildwood Discovery Park, for more information visit the website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 01227 712 111

Wildwood is an ideal day out for all the family where you can come 'nose to nose' with British Wildlife. Wildwood offers its members and visitors a truly inspirational way to learn about the natural history of Britain by actually seeing the wildlife that once lived here, like the wolf, beaver, red squirrel, wild boar and many more.

Wildwood is situated close to Canterbury, just off the A291 between Herne Bay and Canterbury.

FACTS - Red Fox Vulpes vulpes

Recognition:

Reddish orange fur, small dog sized; thick bushy tail in winter
Head/body length: average 67-72cm for males; 62-67cm for females; tail about 40cm
Weight: average 6-7kg for males; 5-6kg for females.

General Ecology:

A highly adaptable species, found in nearly all habitats from salt marshes and sand dunes to the tops of mountains. In Britain, more than elsewhere in Europe, foxes have also adapted to life in urban surroundings.

Foxes hold territories, the size of which depends on habitat; they can be as small as 0.2 square kilometres in urban areas or up to 40 square kilometres in hill country. Each territory is occupied by a fox family group. These often consist of a pair - dog fox and vixen - and their cubs. However, in areas where foxes are not persecuted and where there is a plentiful supply of food, a family group may contain several adults.

Foxes have a very wide and varied diet. On salt marshes they eat crabs and dead seabirds, while in upland regions carrion may be important, particularly during the winter months. In lowland rural areas small mammals, especially field voles and rabbits, are the major source of food, with earthworms, beetles, fruit (particularly blackberries) and small birds also being eaten.

Urban foxes glean large amounts of food. Much of this is deliberately supplied by local householders, and is supplemented by scavenging from dustbins, birdtables and compost heaps. Unlike rural foxes, those living in some urban areas eat many small birds and feral pigeons.

Usually only one vixen in a group produces cubs, once a year in the spring. Litters average four to five cubs which are born blind and deaf in a den (called an earth). The earth may be dug by the foxes, or they may enlarge a rabbit burrow or use holes made by other animals. In urban areas cubs are often born under garden sheds. A vixen stays in the earth with her cubs for the first two weeks of their lives. At about four weeks old, usually in late April or early May, cubs begin to come into the open, when they are often seen by city householders.

Foxes generally do not live very long; although they have been recorded up to nine years old in the wild, most survive only one or two years.

Conservation:

Foxes have little legal protection. In some areas they are subjected to much persecution including shooting, hunting, being snared and dug out with terriers and caught with lurchers (fast, long-legged dogs). Self-locking snares and gin traps, both of which were once used to catch foxes, have been outlawed. Free running snares are legal, but they must be inspected at least once a day. These humanitarian provisions are the sole protection received by foxes.

Despite their lack of protection foxes are widespread and abundant. The success of the fox is due to its adaptability and it is in no need of active conservation measures. There remain about 190 fox hunts in England and Wales, but these probably kill a small proportion of foxes compared to those captured in snares and killed by other means. In the early 1980s many foxes were killed each year for their fur, most of which was exported to West Germany. However, with the decline in fur prices, this trade has decreased substantially.

Fox uses conveyor belt as fun slide

Some animals do the darnedest of things - like this smiling fox, who was captured using an abandoned conveyor belt as a play slide.

The four-legged scavenger was spotted by photographer Duncan Usher while he was in the German village of Bursfelde, taking pictures in an unused gravel quarry.
According to Usher, the fox loves to speed down the chute and actually trotted back to the top several more times while he was taking pictures.

Most UK residents hate the thought of returning home late at night to find the dreaded urban fox rummaging through their bin.

But it seems this little character would be most welcome on the streets.
Another animal recently partaking in human-esque activities was one clever orangutan from Japan, who used a wash cloth to clean his face and cool down during the heat of the day.
The amazing footage was captured by a stunned guest visiting the Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo and the clip has since gone viral across the world.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/873603-grinning-fox-uses-conveyor-belt-as-fun-slide#ixzz1WK7vtj00

Cub's all white now

Casper was found starving to death in Flackwell Heath

Thursday May 5,2011
By Daily Express reporter

THIS rare “one in a million” white fox cub has been nursed back from the brink of death on a diet of dog food.

The four-week-old cub, named Casper after the all-white cartoon ghost, was found starving to death in Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe, Bucks.

He was cared for at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Bucks where staff now plan to give the cub a home for life.

“We managed to save him just in time and he’s doing great now,” said Les Stocker, founder of the hospital.

“Casper is so rare he has got to be one in a million.

“In 30 years, I’ve only ever heard of one other white fox and that had been shot and stuffed!

“I don’t think we’ll release him back into the wild – we don’t want him to get shot.

“We plan to build him a special fox enclosure as he really is special.”

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/244788/Cub-s-all-white-nowCub-s-all-white-now

Man's First Best Friend Might Have Been A Fox

by NPR Staff
February 19, 2011

In a dusty, ancient burial site in northern Jordan, archaeologists have made a startling discovery: a fox buried alongside human remains.

It seems some 16,000 years ago, several millennia before any animals were domesticated, humans may have been making an early attempt to keep pets. Red foxes, to be precise.

It's a surprising find, Cambridge researcher Lisa Maher tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. "When we were first excavating the site, we thought it might have been a dog," she says. It wasn't until her team analyzed the animal's remains that it realized it was a fox.

That the fox was a pet is only one of several possibilities, however. It may instead have had totemic or spiritual significance to the culture. But Maher's team compared the burial site to sites from 4,000 years later, when domesticated dogs did accompany human burials. The similarities suggest "that it probably was a more emotional relationship of one particular fox to one particular person," she says.

Those similarities are also significant because they highlight a continuity in mortuary practices through time, Maher adds. "We're seeing these things, these similarities in mortuary practices and relationships to humans and animals in a much greater time depth than we had previously."

If the fox were indeed a pet, it would be a pretty big deal. "It's certainly a big deal for prehistoric archeology," Maher says, "but it's also a big deal for how we understand human-animal relationships today and in the past."

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/19/133898499/mans-first-best-friend-might-have-been-a-fox

Fox shoots man

Thursday, January 13 07:47 pm

A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter's gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said Thursday. Skip related content

The unnamed hunter, who had approached the fox after wounding it from a distance, was in hospital with a leg wound, while the fox made its escape, media said, citing prosecutors from the Grodno region.

"The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw," one prosecutor was quoted as saying.

Fox-hunting is popular in the picturesque farming region of northwestern Belarus which borders Poland.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Matthew Jones)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110113/tod-oukoe-uk-belarus-fox-cb1d00a.html
(Submitted by Marije Tintin)

Fox shoots man

Thursday, January 13 07:47 pm

A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter's gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said Thursday. Skip related content

The unnamed hunter, who had approached the fox after wounding it from a distance, was in hospital with a leg wound, while the fox made its escape, media said, citing prosecutors from the Grodno region.

"The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw," one prosecutor was quoted as saying.

Fox-hunting is popular in the picturesque farming region of northwestern Belarus which borders Poland.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Matthew Jones)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110113/tod-oukoe-uk-belarus-fox-cb1d00a.html
(Submitted by Marije Tintin)

Monster Cat-Killer Fox Caught in England

Jan 3, 2011 – 4:16 PM
Theunis Bates
Contributor

LONDON -- A supersized fox has been caught and killed in southeast England, raising fears that the red-furred critters could be getting bigger and bolder as they gorge themselves on urban leftovers.

The colossal canine weighed in at 26.5 pounds and measured 4 feet from the end of its nose to the tip of its tail -- twice the size of a normal fox. Veterinarian Keith Talbot caught the creature at his parents' suburban house in Maidstone on Dec. 26, after they told him a fox had gobbled up their 19-year-old pet cat, Amber.

"[Amber] was on the front doormat when [my parents] went to bed and they heard some commotion," he told Sky News. "They saw a fox going up the drive later on that night but didn't think anything of it. Later that morning they came out and there was fur and bits of the cat everywhere."

He set a trap at the property and on Christmas Day caught a regular 14-pound fox. The next night, he snared the bigger beast. Both animals were destroyed.

It was only when Talbot's friend Roy Lupton -- a veteran fox shooter -- turned up and weighed the animal that he realized he might have caught Britain's biggest fox. "I'm not against foxes; I think everything in nature has a place," he said, according to The Daily Mail. "But there is a limit, and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans feeding them and that it's time for controls to come in."

It's thought that the animal could have bulked up by dining on tasty scraps of food found in trashcans or left out by fox lovers.

"Foxes have a social system in which the alpha animal gets the food and the rest gets what's left over, so if there was a very big, dominant animal, the rest would get very little," Pat Morris, a zoologist formerly of Royal Holloway, University of London, told the London Times. "It might be that this was a particularly dominant animal which monopolized the food locally."

Some pro-hunting groups have claimed that the number of urban foxes has soared in recent years and that a cull is desperately needed. Their campaign received a boost in June, when a fox is believed to have attacked 9-month-old twin girls in their cots in east London.

Fox experts insist that unfortunate incident was a one off, and that most of the creatures are shy scavengers. And the University of Bristol's Mammal Group says that urban fox numbers are in fact stable at around 33,000. They note that foxes have simply become more visible and confident over the past decade, as the amount of scraps and trash left lying in the streets has increased.

If Brits want to see fewer big bad foxes strutting though their towns and cities, it seems they'll have to start tidying up after themselves.

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/03/monster-cat-killer-fox-caught-in-england/
(Submitted by Richard Freeman)

Monster Cat-Killer Fox Caught in England

Jan 3, 2011 – 4:16 PM
Theunis Bates
Contributor

LONDON -- A supersized fox has been caught and killed in southeast England, raising fears that the red-furred critters could be getting bigger and bolder as they gorge themselves on urban leftovers.

The colossal canine weighed in at 26.5 pounds and measured 4 feet from the end of its nose to the tip of its tail -- twice the size of a normal fox. Veterinarian Keith Talbot caught the creature at his parents' suburban house in Maidstone on Dec. 26, after they told him a fox had gobbled up their 19-year-old pet cat, Amber.

"[Amber] was on the front doormat when [my parents] went to bed and they heard some commotion," he told Sky News. "They saw a fox going up the drive later on that night but didn't think anything of it. Later that morning they came out and there was fur and bits of the cat everywhere."

He set a trap at the property and on Christmas Day caught a regular 14-pound fox. The next night, he snared the bigger beast. Both animals were destroyed.

It was only when Talbot's friend Roy Lupton -- a veteran fox shooter -- turned up and weighed the animal that he realized he might have caught Britain's biggest fox. "I'm not against foxes; I think everything in nature has a place," he said, according to The Daily Mail. "But there is a limit, and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans feeding them and that it's time for controls to come in."

It's thought that the animal could have bulked up by dining on tasty scraps of food found in trashcans or left out by fox lovers.

"Foxes have a social system in which the alpha animal gets the food and the rest gets what's left over, so if there was a very big, dominant animal, the rest would get very little," Pat Morris, a zoologist formerly of Royal Holloway, University of London, told the London Times. "It might be that this was a particularly dominant animal which monopolized the food locally."

Some pro-hunting groups have claimed that the number of urban foxes has soared in recent years and that a cull is desperately needed. Their campaign received a boost in June, when a fox is believed to have attacked 9-month-old twin girls in their cots in east London.

Fox experts insist that unfortunate incident was a one off, and that most of the creatures are shy scavengers. And the University of Bristol's Mammal Group says that urban fox numbers are in fact stable at around 33,000. They note that foxes have simply become more visible and confident over the past decade, as the amount of scraps and trash left lying in the streets has increased.

If Brits want to see fewer big bad foxes strutting though their towns and cities, it seems they'll have to start tidying up after themselves.

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/03/monster-cat-killer-fox-caught-in-england/
(Submitted by Richard Freeman)

Fox spends two days with watering can stuck on head

The RSPCA has rescued a fox which is believed to have had its head stuck in a watering can for two days.


Two officers from the animal charity were needed to help the creature remove its head, prising out its fur a bit at a time.

The alarm was raised after the fox was seen walking around a back garden in Solihull, near Birmingham, in a very distressed state.

Despite the fox's terrifying ordeal, which meant it had been deprived of food and water for two days, it was in surprisingly good health.

Officers immediately released the animal back into the wild but said the incident should serve as a warning about leaving items lying around.

RSPCA inspector Jonathan Ratcliffe: 'I have no doubt that he would have died if we had not managed to get the watering can off, either from dehydration or from not seeing where he was going and so being killed by a car.'

He added that it is likely the fox put his head in the watering can to get to a frog or a mouse sitting at the bottom.

'This only goes to remind people of the dangers such discarded items can pose to wildlife,' Mr Ratcliffe said.

Research previously conducted by the RSPB found that foxes visit 26 per cent of gardens at least once per month.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/844466-fox-spends-two-days-with-watering-can-stuck-on-head

Fox spends two days with watering can stuck on head

The RSPCA has rescued a fox which is believed to have had its head stuck in a watering can for two days.


Two officers from the animal charity were needed to help the creature remove its head, prising out its fur a bit at a time.

The alarm was raised after the fox was seen walking around a back garden in Solihull, near Birmingham, in a very distressed state.

Despite the fox's terrifying ordeal, which meant it had been deprived of food and water for two days, it was in surprisingly good health.

Officers immediately released the animal back into the wild but said the incident should serve as a warning about leaving items lying around.

RSPCA inspector Jonathan Ratcliffe: 'I have no doubt that he would have died if we had not managed to get the watering can off, either from dehydration or from not seeing where he was going and so being killed by a car.'

He added that it is likely the fox put his head in the watering can to get to a frog or a mouse sitting at the bottom.

'This only goes to remind people of the dangers such discarded items can pose to wildlife,' Mr Ratcliffe said.

Research previously conducted by the RSPB found that foxes visit 26 per cent of gardens at least once per month.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/844466-fox-spends-two-days-with-watering-can-stuck-on-head

Red fox sighting may spur federal protection

By Michael Doyle
mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com
Published: Wednesday, Sep. 8, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 3B
Last Modified: Wednesday, Sep. 8, 2010 - 1:55 pm

WASHINGTON – The rarely seen Sierra Nevada red fox could be the next candidate for federal protection – and perhaps controversy – now that one has been photographed prowling near Sonora Pass.

Last month, a remote camera set up by the Forest Service to monitor a bait station snapped a picture of the red fox, previously thought to be confined to the Lassen Volcanic National Park area, 150 miles away.

Saliva samples subsequently analyzed by a UC Davis team confirmed the red fox's identity.

"It looks like it may be an excellent candidate for listing," Lisa Belensky, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview Tuesday. "We're considering it."

John Buckley, director of the Twain Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, agreed Tuesday that "there is justification for listing (the fox) and having a recovery plan."

New Endangered Species Act listings are harder than ever to get, with the federal law remaining intensely controversial, its costs and consequences subject to question.

"Our state water supply has been hijacked by the radically irresponsible Endangered Species Act," Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, declared in one illustrative House speech last year.

Radanovich is retiring at the end of the year. His likely replacement, Republican state Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced, appears to share the Endangered Species Act skepticism commonly voiced by Radanovich and other Central Valley lawmakers.

Radanovich's 19th Congressional District includes Sonora and the Stanislaus National Forest, the region where scientists are now redoubling their efforts to find evidence of the Sierra Nevada red fox.

"Now there's proof, evidence that the fox's population has spread," Buckley said.

The tracks may eventually lead in several different directions.

Federal scientists can propose adding the fox to the endangered species list that currently numbers 1,959 plants and animals. The Fish and Wildlife Service currently identifies another 48 species that have been proposed for listing.

An additional 245 species are deemed "candidate" species. These are plants and animals deemed to be at risk but which are not added to the protected list because of what the Fish and Wildlife Service considers higher-priority obligations.

"There are species that sit on that candidate list for years and years," Belensky said.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/08/3012009/red-fox-sighting-may-spur-federal.html

Red fox sighting may spur federal protection

By Michael Doyle
mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com
Published: Wednesday, Sep. 8, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 3B
Last Modified: Wednesday, Sep. 8, 2010 - 1:55 pm

WASHINGTON – The rarely seen Sierra Nevada red fox could be the next candidate for federal protection – and perhaps controversy – now that one has been photographed prowling near Sonora Pass.

Last month, a remote camera set up by the Forest Service to monitor a bait station snapped a picture of the red fox, previously thought to be confined to the Lassen Volcanic National Park area, 150 miles away.

Saliva samples subsequently analyzed by a UC Davis team confirmed the red fox's identity.

"It looks like it may be an excellent candidate for listing," Lisa Belensky, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview Tuesday. "We're considering it."

John Buckley, director of the Twain Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, agreed Tuesday that "there is justification for listing (the fox) and having a recovery plan."

New Endangered Species Act listings are harder than ever to get, with the federal law remaining intensely controversial, its costs and consequences subject to question.

"Our state water supply has been hijacked by the radically irresponsible Endangered Species Act," Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, declared in one illustrative House speech last year.

Radanovich is retiring at the end of the year. His likely replacement, Republican state Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced, appears to share the Endangered Species Act skepticism commonly voiced by Radanovich and other Central Valley lawmakers.

Radanovich's 19th Congressional District includes Sonora and the Stanislaus National Forest, the region where scientists are now redoubling their efforts to find evidence of the Sierra Nevada red fox.

"Now there's proof, evidence that the fox's population has spread," Buckley said.

The tracks may eventually lead in several different directions.

Federal scientists can propose adding the fox to the endangered species list that currently numbers 1,959 plants and animals. The Fish and Wildlife Service currently identifies another 48 species that have been proposed for listing.

An additional 245 species are deemed "candidate" species. These are plants and animals deemed to be at risk but which are not added to the protected list because of what the Fish and Wildlife Service considers higher-priority obligations.

"There are species that sit on that candidate list for years and years," Belensky said.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/08/3012009/red-fox-sighting-may-spur-federal.html

Scientists hail find of rare fox in Sierra Nevada

11:35 pm

RENO (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.”

Researchers determined the wolverine wandered into the Sierra from the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.

John Perrine, a biology professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, said it was the first confirmed sighting of the fox subspecies (Vulpes vulpes necator) in the Sierra since 1990 near Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park.

“What's exciting is that it shows there are native mountain red foxes in the Sierra right now, which is something we didn't think were still there,” Perrine said. “We didn't have any evidence they were there and now we do.”

The DNA testing showed it's unlikely the fox wandered 150 miles south to Sonora Pass from a very small population of the subspecies around Lassen Peak in northern California, Perrine said.

The fox is genetically distinct from members of that group in the southern Cascade Range, he said. The fox carried a genetic signature seen previously only in three other foxes that were collected in the Sierra before 1926 and later became museum specimens, he added.

Sacks said he thinks other members exist of the subspecies known for its darker-colored, soft fur.

“There's a remote chance they were ready to blink out and we got the last one, but I think that's highly unlikely,” Sacks said. “There have to be other foxes out there in the Sierra.”

Scientists are unsure why the shy creature has declined in numbers. Environmental groups have blamed logging, livestock grazing and trapping.

California banned trapping of the foxes in 1974 and listed the animal as a threatened species in 1980. The Forest Service lists it as a sensitive species in California.

Perrine said evidence indicates the subspecies warrants protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, but he thinks more research is needed to meet the burden of proof for such a listing.

“It's a special, unique part of our natural heritage, and we know now that it's not totally gone,” he said. “We have an opportunity to protect it for the future.”

Rachel Mazur, wildlife biologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said cameras will be set up in a wider area around Sonora Pass in an effort to learn more about the animal.

“To us, it's definitely a species of concern,” she said. “It's as rare as you can get when you only know of one member of a subspecies.”

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20100905/NEWS/100909767/1064/NEWS

Scientists hail find of rare fox in Sierra Nevada

11:35 pm

RENO (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.”

Researchers determined the wolverine wandered into the Sierra from the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.

John Perrine, a biology professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, said it was the first confirmed sighting of the fox subspecies (Vulpes vulpes necator) in the Sierra since 1990 near Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park.

“What's exciting is that it shows there are native mountain red foxes in the Sierra right now, which is something we didn't think were still there,” Perrine said. “We didn't have any evidence they were there and now we do.”

The DNA testing showed it's unlikely the fox wandered 150 miles south to Sonora Pass from a very small population of the subspecies around Lassen Peak in northern California, Perrine said.

The fox is genetically distinct from members of that group in the southern Cascade Range, he said. The fox carried a genetic signature seen previously only in three other foxes that were collected in the Sierra before 1926 and later became museum specimens, he added.

Sacks said he thinks other members exist of the subspecies known for its darker-colored, soft fur.

“There's a remote chance they were ready to blink out and we got the last one, but I think that's highly unlikely,” Sacks said. “There have to be other foxes out there in the Sierra.”

Scientists are unsure why the shy creature has declined in numbers. Environmental groups have blamed logging, livestock grazing and trapping.

California banned trapping of the foxes in 1974 and listed the animal as a threatened species in 1980. The Forest Service lists it as a sensitive species in California.

Perrine said evidence indicates the subspecies warrants protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, but he thinks more research is needed to meet the burden of proof for such a listing.

“It's a special, unique part of our natural heritage, and we know now that it's not totally gone,” he said. “We have an opportunity to protect it for the future.”

Rachel Mazur, wildlife biologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said cameras will be set up in a wider area around Sonora Pass in an effort to learn more about the animal.

“To us, it's definitely a species of concern,” she said. “It's as rare as you can get when you only know of one member of a subspecies.”

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20100905/NEWS/100909767/1064/NEWS

Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find (Via Chad Arment)

Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find

September 3, 2010

Three weeks ago, when U.S. Forest Service biologists thought they had found a supposedly extinct fox in the mountains of central California, they turned to UC Davis for confirmation.

Photographs taken by a Forest Service trail camera in Sonora Pass seemed to show a Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) biting a bait bag of chicken scraps. That would be an amazing discovery, since no sighting of that species has been verified south of Mount Lassen, 200 miles away, since the mid-1990s.

The biologists shipped the bait bag to wildlife genetics researchers Ben Sacks and Mark Statham at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. Since 2006, they have radically altered our understanding of red foxes in California, supplying information crucial to conservation efforts.

Sacks and Statham scraped saliva from the tooth punctures on the bag and analyzed the DNA within. Before you could say spit, they had the answer: definitely a Sierra Nevada red fox.

“This is the most exciting animal discovery we have had in California since the wolverine in the Sierra two years ago -- only this time, the unexpected critter turned out to be home-grown, which is truly big news,” Sacks said. (The wolverine was an immigrant from Wyoming).

Four years ago, Sacks began analyzing California red fox DNA collected from scat, hair and saliva from live animals, and skin and bones from museum specimens. Until then, the expert consensus was that any red fox in the Central Valley and coastal regions of the state was a descendant of Eastern red foxes (V.v. fulva) brought here in the 1860's for hunting and fur farms.

Sacks and his colleagues have confirmed that red fox populations in coastal lowlands, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were indeed introduced from the eastern United States (and Alaska). But they have also shown that:

•There are native California red foxes still living in the Sierra Nevada.
•The native red foxes in the Sacramento Valley (V.v. patwin) are a subspecies genetically distinct from those in the Sierra.
•The two native California subspecies, along with Rocky Mountain and Cascade red foxes (V.v. macroura and V. v. cascadensis), formed a single large western population until the end of the last ice age, when the three mountain subspecies followed receding glaciers up to mountaintops, leaving the Sacramento Valley red fox isolated at low elevation.

Sacks' extensive research program focuses on canids, especially red foxes (evolution, ecology and conservation) and dogs (genetics, geographic origins and spread). He and his students also are working on other carnivores, including disease ecology and interactions among fishers, bobcats, coyotes and gray foxes, and population genetics of ringtails and coyotes.

http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9596

Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find (Via Chad Arment)

Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find

September 3, 2010

Three weeks ago, when U.S. Forest Service biologists thought they had found a supposedly extinct fox in the mountains of central California, they turned to UC Davis for confirmation.

Photographs taken by a Forest Service trail camera in Sonora Pass seemed to show a Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) biting a bait bag of chicken scraps. That would be an amazing discovery, since no sighting of that species has been verified south of Mount Lassen, 200 miles away, since the mid-1990s.

The biologists shipped the bait bag to wildlife genetics researchers Ben Sacks and Mark Statham at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. Since 2006, they have radically altered our understanding of red foxes in California, supplying information crucial to conservation efforts.

Sacks and Statham scraped saliva from the tooth punctures on the bag and analyzed the DNA within. Before you could say spit, they had the answer: definitely a Sierra Nevada red fox.

“This is the most exciting animal discovery we have had in California since the wolverine in the Sierra two years ago -- only this time, the unexpected critter turned out to be home-grown, which is truly big news,” Sacks said. (The wolverine was an immigrant from Wyoming).

Four years ago, Sacks began analyzing California red fox DNA collected from scat, hair and saliva from live animals, and skin and bones from museum specimens. Until then, the expert consensus was that any red fox in the Central Valley and coastal regions of the state was a descendant of Eastern red foxes (V.v. fulva) brought here in the 1860's for hunting and fur farms.

Sacks and his colleagues have confirmed that red fox populations in coastal lowlands, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were indeed introduced from the eastern United States (and Alaska). But they have also shown that:

•There are native California red foxes still living in the Sierra Nevada.
•The native red foxes in the Sacramento Valley (V.v. patwin) are a subspecies genetically distinct from those in the Sierra.
•The two native California subspecies, along with Rocky Mountain and Cascade red foxes (V.v. macroura and V. v. cascadensis), formed a single large western population until the end of the last ice age, when the three mountain subspecies followed receding glaciers up to mountaintops, leaving the Sacramento Valley red fox isolated at low elevation.

Sacks' extensive research program focuses on canids, especially red foxes (evolution, ecology and conservation) and dogs (genetics, geographic origins and spread). He and his students also are working on other carnivores, including disease ecology and interactions among fishers, bobcats, coyotes and gray foxes, and population genetics of ringtails and coyotes.

http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9596

Urban fox hunt video was hoax aimed at the media, say film-makers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/urban-fox-hunt-chris-atkins

Urban fox hunt video was hoax aimed at the media, say film-makers
Chris Atkins and Johnny Howorth, the team behind Starsuckers, say film was
satirical swipe at press coverage of fox attacks
• Paul Lewis
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 August 2010 17.35 BST

It was the internet video that sparked a media outcry: grainy footage that seemed to show four masked men drugging a fox and later beating it to death with cricket bats in a London park that was posted on YouTube and Facebook earlier this week.

But the Guardian can reveal that the new sport of "urban foxhunting" was an elaborate hoax. The film-makers, Chris Atkins and Johnny Howorth, said no real foxes were harmed in the film, which was intended as a satirical swipe at "media hysteria" over the danger of urban foxes.

Animal rights campaigners had expressed fury over the "bloodthirsty" huntsmen, eliciting the support of MPs on Twitter and prompting an inquiry by the Metropolitan police's wildlife crime unit.

YouTube and Facebook removed the footage and the controversy was covered in news outlets including the Guardian, the Times, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail. The BBC was also duped, sending a reporter to Victoria Park, Hackney – the supposed scene of the crime. Amid a growing furore, the animal welfare group League Against Cruel Sports launched a campaign against urban foxhunting, while the RSPCA said it was investigating.

In today's London Evening Standard, columnist Sebastian Shakespeare went so far as to celebrate urban foxhunting as the first and best example of David Cameron's "big society" in action. In fact, the dead animal in the footage was played by a stuffed fox, the film-makers told the Guardian, while the live fox was played by a pet dog, Monty, with a bushy tail taped to its hindquarters.

The pair said they made their film "deliberately Pythonesque" in a bid to lampoon the media hysteria over urban foxes, and were surprised when the video was so widely assumed to be authentic.

Gang defends video of fox death

A gang which beat a fox to death before posting a video of the attack on the internet claims it was "performing a public service".

East London-based Urban Foxhunters, which describes itself as "a collective from Victoria Park who hate foxes", prompted disgust from animal welfare groups after posting the video on websites including Facebook.

The clip has now been removed but is reported to show them chasing the fox in Victoria Park then beating it to death with a cricket bat.

Writing on the group's blog one member, who calls himself Lone Horseman, claimed they drugged the foxes before killing them.

"For the record - when we kill these foxes they are dosed up with xanax, which if you haven't tried it is a trippy anti anxiety drug."

And he defended the group's actions, saying: "We will not be intimidated by the crazies.

"We are performing a public service which is a bit unpleasant but it has to be done to keep our streets safe. I have kids and I don't want them being bitten by a diseased vermin scum, what's wrong with that?"

Their attacks come after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were savaged by a fox in their home in Hackney, east London, on June 5.

The League Against Cruel Sports condemned the group's actions.

A spokesman said: "If the video is genuine, we are shocked but not particularly surprised that some people have reacted in this way to the hysterical media coverage on the extremely rare fox attack. People in Hackney are at far greater risk from people wielding cricket bats than they are from urban foxes."

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=154293492&ocid=today

Toddler taken to hospital after fox attack

A toddler was taken to hospital in Brighton after reports that he had been injured by a fox, police confirmed today.

The three-year-old boy was either bitten or scratched on the arm as he played outside at a party at Dorothy Stringer pre-school playgroup in Brighton, East Sussex, on Saturday afternoon.

It is believed the child, who has not been named, saw and stroked the tail of an animal which was sticking out from under a temporary building when it turned on him. An RSPCA inspector who attended the scene was unable to find the animal, but was told there had been a fox den in the playground for more than year.

Relatives took the boy to the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton where he was treated and released, Sussex police said.

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: "As far as we are aware it was a fox. People there told us they were aware of a fox who had made his den there and had been living there for a year of so."

She added: "Attacks like this are extremely rare. Foxes will usually shy away from interaction with people. We offer our sincere condolences to the family concerned and we hope for a speedy recovery for the child."

She explained that had a fox been found it would not have been put down but taken away and rereleased elsewhere. She had no information on the extent of the injuries.

A police spokeswoman said: "Police were called by South East Coast Ambulance Service at 12.30pm on Saturday 19 June after a report of a boy being bitten by a fox."

She added: "The boy was taken to the Royal Sussex county hospital by family, where he was treated and released."

A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: "We were called to the scene but we then were stood down. This would imply that the injuries were not that bad."

The incident comes a fortnight after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked after a fox entered their upstairs bedroom in Hackney, east London.

It is thought to have got in through a door on the ground floor of the three-storey house, which was left open because of the hot weather, while the children's parents watched Britain's Got Talent on television.

Both girls have since been discharged from hospital. The twins' four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt in the attack.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/21/toddler-brighton-fox-attack

(submitted by Rob Chambers)