Project overview: Employ remote cameras, genetic analysis, and scientific models to inform strategies for saving the Sierra Nevada red fox, a rare subspecies believed to be on the edge of extinction.

How your support helps: Sierra Nevada red foxes are uniquely adapted to life at high elevations, sporting thick, dense fur that transforms their coats into warm jackets and their paws into snowshoes. But being well-suited to a cold, snowy climate isn’t enough to protect this mammal. The fox, which was officially designated as an endangered species in 2021, is extremely rare in its namesake range. Biologists have counted startlingly few individuals in and around the park, and they believe the Yosemite-area population may vanish entirely without intervention.    

In early 2015, through a Conservancy-supported project, biologists reported the first sighting in 99 years of a Sierra Nevada red fox within Yosemite National Park’s boundary. Now, to shape an effective conservation plan, researchers are working to fill a range-wide gap in information about the fox’s population size and distribution.   

Over several years of Conservancy-funded work, researchers have used remote cameras, field surveys, and genetic analysis to study the Sierra Nevada red fox. Staff have detected foxes in the park on 169 occasions at 22 locations and gathered data to estimate the size and travel patterns of the Yosemite population. Currently, researchers believe there are 18 to 39 individuals across the fox’s range.  

This year: In 2026, your support will increase scientific understanding of Sierra Nevada red foxes in Yosemite and, ultimately, inform a comprehensive species-recovery plan. Staff will document species distribution in Yosemite using camera surveys, analyze genetic material from scat, and evaluate the effects of predators and prey on the species.

Project partners: Yosemite National Park; California Department of Fish and Wildlife; Oregon State University; Rogue Detection Teams; and University of California, Davis 

Sarah Stock

Wildlife Biologist, Yosemite National Park

Project Notes

"In order to implement an effective species recovery, we need to answer key missing links such as population size and range extent."