Rare fox seen in southern Sierra

The rare Sierra Nevada red fox has been spotted further south than at any time in nearly a century.

The fox, which is on the endangered species list, was believed to have been gone from the entire Sierra until it was seen 13 years ago in the Sonora Pass area, west of Bridgeport.

Now, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, cameras have detected it 100 miles to the south near Taboose Pass — a high, steep pass on the eastern side of the High Sierra that is near the boundary of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.

It’s the first time the fox has been seen there since the 1930s, according to the CDFW.

“We honestly did not expected to detect a fox down there,” said CDFW biologist Brian Hatfield, who described the discovery as “quite exciting.”

Cameras placed in the mountains detected the foxes at elevations of 11,400 feet and above. The sightings occurred from April to June last year, but they are only now being announced.

The foxes may be moving across the range. They have also been spotted in recent years in the Mono Creek area above Tom’s Place, northwest of Bishop, according to Hatfield, who works on field surveys. The foxes have also been observed in Yosemite National Park, he said.

The foxes thrive in a variety of habitats at relatively high elevations, though they come downslope in the winter. They also live in the Lassen area as well as the Cascade range in Oregon.

In the Sierra, the species is almost vanishingly rare. According to a 2018 paper from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the group in the Sonora Pass area — at the time the only known Sierra location of the fox — was “estimated at about 10 to 50 adults.”

Hatfield cautioned that it was impossible to know the real numbers.

“They’re just a very elusive animal,” he said. “They’re very hard to detect. They live at really low densities.”