Ecology - Environment

" The kit fox has no recognized subspecies, although some populations have been proposed as subspecies.^[1]

The San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) was formerly common in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Its 1990 population was estimated to be 7,000, and it is now considered endangered. On September 26, 2007, Wildlands Inc. announced the designation of the 684-acre (2.77 km²) Deadman Creek Conservation Bank, which is intended specifically to protect habitat of the San Joaquin kit fox.^[6] Causes of population declines include heavy competition with the red fox and habitat loss.

The desert kit fox (V. m. arsipus) lives in the Mojave Desert.

The Southern California kit fox (V. m. macrotis) was a population of kit foxes native to desert regions of Southern California which became extinct in 1903."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_fox

Why? Can we save the dinosaurs?

I watched your little video, and you people never cease to amaze me. It showed a picture of a cute little dead fox that was found near a solar power project...no connection between the two is made...in fact, it sort of looked like the fox was placed there. Sick and wounded animals don't generally just lay down out in the open and wait to die.

What's next? Is CA, (the nation's largest consumer of power), going to ban solar power.

I'm so happy to be away from there. Good freakin' luck; and don't call me for a bailout.

The posting is for "likeminded people"

Whoever said anything about "banning" solar projects? In fact, if anything, the purpose of this study is to ensure that the construction of the solar projects is done in such a way as to avoid the risk of losing a keystone species.

The fox is dead from canine distemper (http://www.kcet.org/news/the_back_forty/commentary/desert-kit-fox-distemper-outbreak-may-have-come-in-a-bottle.html), a disease which could spread to pet dogs and have an effect on humans.

Have a read through this short article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?_r=2

Hopefully, this should be a loud enough wakeup call to make people a little bit more likeminded. It is the "health of the planet" that is at stake, the consequences of neglect is that we all go the way of the dinosaurs!

The articles you linked are very interesting. Your original approach to getting people interested was all wrong.

Rather than saying, "Save the kit fox", you may want to consider opening a thread that delves into the science behind the spread of disease between animals and humans, or wild animals to domestic animals.

People on this forum tend to gravitate toward sciency stuff, rather than a plea to save a particular animal. It looked like spam.

I think this is a subject worth discussing; maybe consider opening a thread that looks at the entire problem, and incorporating the kit fox into the conversation.

The color is a little off but the ears look about like the current resident in the White House.

Reply to kramarat

Many thanks for your constructive criticism. Yes, you are right, the approach was too direct.

Let me be honest, without thinking too much about it, I took only a few minutes to open a thread in this forum to get a new and a different audience to what my daughter had reached out to. Yes my daughter, who obviously shares the same surname with me.

She is a graduate student at Duke University, NC and took up this research study which goes beyond her academic requirements. She wants to do it all on her own (financially) but has a team of biologists who have volunteered to help her in the research.

She is using crowdfunding to raise whatever she can financially to run the project. In her words the "motivating factor behind my decision to involve crowdfunding and social media in my research was to share this experience with people in my life, connect with new people who share my love for the natural world, and finally, to make full use of being a scientist who lives and works in the age of the internet."

She has got considerable help from her academic network, some who have campaigned for her:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/05/23/help-this-desert-kit-fox-study-get-moving/comment-page-1/

https://twitter.com/StuartPimm/status/338995745145356288

She has started up on the project in SoCal and is now exploring the desert. I jumped in to spread the word, when I noted that the funding campaign had slowed down.

I have started another string which should hopefully get some better results.

Thanks again for your input.

Random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal?

Catchy, but I think your daughter might be running around with the wrong crowd...at least if she wants to be thought of as a serious researcher.

Talk to me when she grows up.

More likely the coyotes ate them all...


http://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/red-fox-lyme-disease.html