Posted on 02/20/2012 8:33:45 PM PST by thecodont
Like lovers in Paris, San Joaquin kit foxes will always have Bakersfield.
The rare little foxes come out mostly at night. They find fabulous food everywhere: chunks of cheeseburger from dumpsters, shreds of taco on windblown wrappers. And the accommodations: What can beat a cozy den in the student quarter specifically, beneath portable classrooms in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District?
The 17,000-student district isn't crazy about the foxes, especially when about one-third of its 23 elementary and junior high schools have to deal with them on a regular basis. Administrators have offered a wildlife biologist $25,000 for a plan to manage the endangered species, which is literally, and uneasily, underfoot.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ah yes. The kit fox. Some assembly required...
If they banned feeding the foxes, maybe they’d leave.
Close the schools. Keep the foxes. Where do I get my money?
Kit foxes aren’t rare. There is no end to the number of projects they’ve shut down in the Bakersfield area. Tey are everywhere in abundance here.
Seems these “endangered” critters are strangely bent on making themselves virtual household animals. Older societies would likely have accommodated this, and we’d start to see pet foxes.
Cite little airplane~
Cessna 195 driver
As for rare species becoming pets... this is probably precedented by the domestic cat. There isn’t any wild species that, like the wolf does to the dog, can claim to share a species with the domestic cat. This means that the domestic cat managed to get itself off of some hypothetical ancient endangered list by making itself a household pet. But there were no biologists hovering over society to make a stink about it either.
Make them a member of the local church, then you would only see them at Christmas and Easter.
Cute 'lil critters.
The kit fox is the smallest species of the Canidae family that can be found in North America. They have large ears, between 7195 mm (2.83.75 in), that help the fox lower its body temperature and give it exceptional hearing. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the male being slightly larger. The average species weight is between 1.62.7 kg (3.56 lbs). The body length is 455 to 535 mm (18 to 21 in). The tail adds another 250340 mm (9.8513.4 in) to their length.[3]
It usually has a gray coat, with rusty tones, and a black tip to its tail.
Male and female kit foxes usually establish monogamous mating pairs during October and November. Polygamous mating relationships have been observed. Pairs can change year to year. They mate from December to February, when they use larger family dens.[clarification needed] Litters are born throughout March and April, usually containing 1 to 7 pups, and averaging 4 pups. The gestation is 49 to 55 days.
Pups do not leave the den until they are 4 weeks old. They are weaned after about 8 weeks and become independent at 5 to 6 months old. They become sexually mature at 10 months. Both parents take part in raising and protecting their young.
The average lifespan of a wild kit fox is 5.5 years. In captivity, they can live 12 years. One California study of 144 kit fox pups showed a 74% mortality rate in pups within the first year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Fox
From personal experience, assembly at 2:00 am on Christmas Eve can be a bit frustrating. However, it’s well worth it. The children were just delighted finding their cute kit foxes under the tree,
None of the wild cats are believed to share the catus species unless they are re-feralized house cats. Many other species are close and can successfully breed with the house cat. Even some of different genera. But none stand as identical species to the domestic cat as the wolf does to the domestic dog.
The african wildcat subspecies *IS* the domesticated cat. The tibetan wolf subspecies *IS* the domesticated dog.
The north american wolf is as different from a dog as the european wildcat is from a house cat.
Are these illegal alien kit foxes? They survive like many illegal aliens.
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