Meet a Local - The Sierra Nevada Red Fox
KEEP WILDLIFE WILD
Sierra Nevada Red Fox are smart and social, but don’t feed them. These animals are critically imperiled, and one of the largest threats to these animals in the area is being struck by cars because they become too familiar with people. Follow the rule of thumb: if you can’t block the animal entirely from view with your thumb at arm’s length, you’re too close and putting yourself and the animal at risk.
Mt. Bachelor is a pretty special place, and not just for the skiing and riding. Mt. Bachelor and its surrounding areas are home to a small group of Sierra Nevada Red Fox, a montane (or high altitude-dwelling) subspecies of red fox. Characterized by snow-adapted fluffy feet that act like snowshoes, the Sierra Nevada Red Fox is part of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s conservation strategy. Because they’re elusive and live in areas that are difficult to survey, it is difficult to accurately estimate how many remain. Based on existing data, there are fewer than 30 adults known in California and an unknown number in Oregon. Because montane foxes have found a niche habitat at high altitudes, they are a species that stands to be greatly affected by climate change - as temperatures rise, other carnivores like coyotes will climb to higher altitudes and begin to compete for food or serve as predators to the foxes that live there.
The Sierra Nevada Red Fox (affectionately known as SNRF, pronounced “snurf,” by ODFW biologists) can be red, black, or grayish brown, and about the size of a large cat. The individuals at Mt. Bachelor are dark grey - nearly black - with a bright white paintbrush tip at the end of their tail. Without close inspection (typically paired with DNA analysis), the SNRF is virtually indistinguishable from any other red fox. So how do you know if you’ve seen one? Location is a sure tell. If you spot a fox above 5,000 ft in the central Cascades, it is likely a SNRF. If you’re in Easten Oregon at a high elevation, you’ve seen a Rocky Mountain Red Fox, and if you’re in the northern Cascades of Washington you’ve seen a Cascade Red Fox. Foxes that live in Oregon below 4,000 ft are typically descended from individuals introduced for fur production. Take all of this with a grain of salt – more and more gene mixing is being observed in red fox subspecies.
A few years ago, ODFW used Mt. Bachelor’s facilities while they collected data and tagged a fox that they had been able to capture. Since then, these foxes have become well known to our teams around the mountain who do everything they can to keep them undisturbed. We ask that our guests do the same – please avoid leaving food in accessible areas and keep your pets away.
Kaly Adkins, Wildlife Biologist for ODFW, has this to say: “We have biologists whose job it is to survey for Sierra Nevada Red Fox, and many aren’t lucky enough to see them in the wild. If you see one, let us know! Take pictures and log your observations on iNaturalist. Be a part of community science!”
Photo collected by Washington State University graduate student, Marwa Mahmoud, in the central Cascades study region during the summer of 2023.
