Status            Endangered 
 Listed             March 11, 1967 
 Family            Canidae (Dog) 
 Description    Small, light buff or gray fox. 
 Habitat           Dens near freshwater marshes. 
 Food               Field mice, cottontails, other small mammals. 
 Reproduction Lifter size 3 to 5. 
 Threats          Coyotes, urbanization, automobiles. 
 

Description

    The long-tailed San Joaquin kit fox, one of eight subspecies of kit foxes, has an average body length of 51 centimeters (20 in) and stands about 30 centimeters (12 in) high at the shoulder.  Average weight of an adult male is only about 2.25 kilograms (5 lbs.) - The ears are conspicuously large and densely covered on the inside with stiff, white hairs.  The summer coat is light buff to buffy gray on the back and white on the belly; winter coat is grizzled gray on the back, rust to buff on the sides, and white beneath.  The tail is distinguished by a prominent black tip. 

Behavior

    The San Joaquin kit fox is primarily nocturnal, becoming active near sunset and foraging throughout the night.  It feeds on rodents and other small animals, including blacktailed hares, desert cottontails, mice, kangaroo rats, squirrels, birds, and lizards.  The San Joaquin kit fox satisfies its moisture requirements from prey and does not depend on freshwater sources. 
    Kit foxes live for as long as seven years, but the average age of the breeding population is about two and a half years.  Foxes reach sexual maturity after 22 months.  Individual foxes may use between 3 and 24 different dens throughout the year.  Pupping dens are multi-chambered and may have four or more separate entrances.  In September, vixens return to the pupping dens to clean and enlarge them.  Males join the vixens in October or November and most breeding occurs in early January.  After a gestation period of 49 to 55 days, litters of three to five are born in late February or early March.  Vixens bear one litter per year.  Pups emerge from the dens after they are weaned at about one month.  Both parents provide food and care for pups until they are four to five months old, When pups begin to forage for themselves, they disperse, and adults move to smaller dens within the range. 

Habitat

    The San Joaquin kit fox forages in California prairie and Sonoran grasslands in the vicinity of freshwater marshes and alkali sinks, where there is a dense ground cover of tall grasses and San Joaquin saltbush.  Seasonal flooding in such habitats is normal.  Soils are deep, heavy loams that support mixtures of native perennial and introduced grasses.  Pupping dens are built in more loosely textured soils at elevations between 110 and 900 meters (350 and 2,950 ft). 

Historic Range 

    Formerly, this kit fox was relatively common in the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley, California, in a range that extended in the north from above Modesto (San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties) to near Bakersfield (Kern County) in the south.  By 1930 the kit fox had been eliminated from the northern portion of its range and was found in declining numbers from Merced (Merced County) south along the Coastal Range through Fresno and San Benito counties.  Populations survived in Kings, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties mostly west of Interstate Highway 5. 

Current Distribution 

    The kit fox is now known to occur along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in Merced County, and in Kern and San Luis Obispo and Kern counties.  Isolated individuals or small breed. ing populations have been found near Whit, River south of Porterville (Tulare County) and in three counties outside the original range of the species-Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara.  Currently, fewer than 7,000 San Joaquin kit foxes are thought to survive. 

Conservation and Recovery 

    Much of the San Joaquin Valley has been developed-first for agriculture, later for residences, commercial establishments, and industries, including extensive mining operations.  Expansion along the main highway corridors from the urban centers of Merced, Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield has claimed many acres of fox habitat.  Livestock grazing on marginal grasslands has depleted much of the native ground cover, reducing rodent and other mammal populations on which the kit fox preys.  A few kit foxes have been observed denning in waste areas between irrigated fields but their status is precarious. 
    The San Joaquin kit fox also faces predation by coyotes and increased mortality caused by vehicular traffic.  To offset predation, state biologists have begun a program to construct and place artificial dens made of steel pipe; the openings are wide enough for the kit fox but too narrow for predators such as coyotes.  These man-made shelters are being used for shelter and denning. 
    In 1987 the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) met with representatives of the California Department of Fish and Game, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Energy, and Chevron U.S.A. to determine the impact on kit fox habitat of a proposed 70-square-kilometer (29-sq-mi) seismic exploration project.  The proposed exploration requires extensive use of off-road vehicles and systematic detonation of explosives to determine the potential for oil and gas reserves in the San Joaquin Valley, Following formal consultation, Chevron agreed to conduct ground surveys to locate kit fox dens and to provide a minimum 60-meter (200-ft) buffer around test holes to prevent den collapse caused by explosions.  Chevron agreed to provide adequate wildlife awareness training for its employees, to limit vehicle use to existing roads, and to rehabilitate habitat disturbed by exploration activities.  The corporation also agreed to partially fund radio telemetry studies to determine distribution and range of kit fox populations. 
    Also in 1987, the Army Corps of Engineers set aside 285 hectares (705 acres) of alkali sink lands as a wildlife refuge to mitigate possible damage to the habitat caused by construction along Cahente Creek in Kern County.  This refuge provides long-term habitat protection for the kit fox and for the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia silus), a federally listed species. 
    The FWS Recovery Plan recommends the use Of tax incentives and conservation easements to induce owners of large tracts of land within the San Joaquin Valley to cooperate with recovery efforts.  Because of the checkerboard arrangement of private and public lands within the area, voluntary, cooperative management is seen as the only strategy that would significantly improve the overall habitat for the kit fox. 
 

Bibliography 

Morrell, S. H. 1972.  "The Life History of the San Joaquin Kit Fox." 
California Fish and Game 
58:162-174. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1983.  "San Joaquin Kit Fox Recovery Plan." 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland. 

Contact 

Regional Office of Endangered Species 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
Lloyd 500 Building, Suite 1692 
500 N.E. Multnomah Street 
Portland, Oregon 97232