Red Foxes In Sacramento Valley - Long Believed Invasive - Turn Out To Be Native Subspecies - AFP

[hatrack]

A subspecies of red fox living in California's Sacramento Valley -- long believed to be a non-native pest -- is in fact native to the area, scientists say.

For almost 100 years the red foxes were thought to have escaped from fur farms and hunting parties in the 1900s, but they're actually genetically different than non-native foxes elsewhere in California, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

They are also genetically distinct from gray foxes native across most of California, the newspaper said.

Ben Sacks, a biology professor at the University of California-Davis, says genetic testing shows the subspecies, which he calls the Sacramento Valley red fox, is unique to lowland areas north of the American River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "We can now say that the foxes of the Sacramento Valley are native to California," Sacks said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/New_species_of_fox_found_in_California_999.html

[tabatha]

1. Neat!

Glad to hear that.

[Cleita]

2. Oh I hope the ones I have spotted in the woods behind my house are of the

native species. I was always afraid Fish and Wildlife would come out and destroy them if someone reported them. I live a couple of hundred miles from Sacramento on the coast, but the climate and ecosystem is comparable.

[rocktivity]

3. There goes Sacramento's property values!

rocktivity

[XemaSab]

4. Ha!

Too damn funny!

Especially since they were considered close to extirpated in California, so the Sierra form is endangered. :P