page_title: Kit fox
section_title: Subspecies
hierarchical_section_title: Kit fox / Subspecies
caption_attribution_description: English: A San Joaquin Kit Fox at the California Living Museum in Bakersfield, Calif. The species was placed on the endangered list on March 11, 1967. Before the Kit Fox inhabited much of California’s San Joaquin Valley prior to 1930. Its range extended from southern Kern County north to eastern Contra Costa County on the Valley’s west side and to Stanislaus County on the east side. By 1930 its range may have been reduced to half, mostly in the southern and western San Joaquin Valley and foothills. The average male San Joaquin kit fox .measures about 32 inches in length (of which 12 inches is the length of its tail). It stands 12 inches high at the shoulder, and weighs about 5 pounds. The female is a little smaller. The San Joaquin kit fox is the smallest canid species in North America (but the largest kit fox subspecies). Photo taken August 20, 1993.
context_page_description: The kit fox is a fox species of North America. Its range is primarily in the Southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. Some mammalogists classify it as conspecific with the swift fox, V. velox, but molecular systematics imply that the two species are distinct. It has also been called an American Fennec fox due to its large ears.
context_section_description: The endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) was formerly very common in the San Joaquin Valley and through much of Central California. Its 1990 population was estimated to be 7,000. This subspecies is still endangered, after nearly 50 years of being on the Endangered Species List. Officially this subspecies was listed March 3, 1967.  On September 26, 2007, Wildlands Inc. announced the designation of the 684 acre (277 ha) Deadman Creek Conservation Bank, which is intended specifically to protect habitat of the San Joaquin kit fox. However, the population continues to decline mostly due to heavy habitat loss. Other factors include competition from red foxes, and the extermination of the wolf from California has left the coyote as the dominant meso-predator in kit fox territory, bringing an imbalance in ecosystem relationships.
caption: San Joaquin kit fox at the California Living Museum in Bakersfield
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