Rocky Mountain red fox in winter

PhooooI am keeping this shot small because it is a low resolution photo. But I wanted to share this gorgeous image of a black morph Rocky Mountain red fox. This individual is a cousin of the Cascade red fox and looks very similar to some of the individuals we have seen in southern Washington. Mountain foxes comprise individuals of the red fox species from the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Mountain Ranges. They share a unique evolutionary history among red foxes as they are descended from individuals who colonized North America by crossing the Bering Landbridge during the penultimate Illinoian glaciation, which started 310,00 years ago. The mountain foxes, as well as a group of east coast red foxes, are the oldest red fox residents of North America. All other red foxes arrived during the last Wisconsin glaciation between 110,00 and 11,700 years ago. The ancestors of mountain foxes lived south of the Wisconsin icesheets in ice-free forest refuges and moved up into the mountains when the icesheets receded where the climate was similar to glacial conditions. They are now isolated in the mountains where they are suffering precipitous declines in abundance and distribution for unexamined reasons. We are exploring some of the threats in our current study in southern Washington.

Photo: Robert Strawbridge III, Wilson, WY (April 2012)