Alviso Red Fox Sighting, 8/12/18 by Ronald Horii
On Sunday, 8/12/18, I was biking the Alviso Slough Loop segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail. I biked the trail clockwise, starting at Alviso Marina County Park. First, I followed the Alviso Slough downstream, then turned as the trail followed Coyote Creek upstream. As I approached a bend in the trail, I saw an animal running along the bank of the salt pond. It was a red fox. I've heard about red foxes being in the marshes around the Bay, but in all the years I've biked or hiked on the Bay Trail around the Bay, I've never seen a live one. The fox saw me and ran away, but I was able to get some pictures of it before it disappeared. Fortunately, I had my 30X travelzoom camera with me. Here are some shots of the fox. They are cropped about 2X linearly, so they are roughly equivalent to shots with a 1400 mm lens. While it's neat to see one, it's not good news for the environment. Red foxes are non-native animals that were brought into California in the 1870s from the East Coast for hunting and for the fur trade. The foxes adapted to California and now pose a threat to native animals, particularly the endangered Ridgway's rail (formerly called the clapper rail). https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/27/dont-be-distracted-by-the-red-foxs-beauty-it-has-a-darker-side/
Here's a map of the trail: https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/AlvisoTrail_2013.pdf
It's mostly on National Wildlife Refuge land, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Don_Edwards_San_Francisco_Bay/ResourceManagement.html
On Friday, 8/10/18, I went on a boat tour of the Alviso Slough, offered by the County Parks. Here are pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1934055089951337.1073742432.100000405933924&type=1&l=3ae79ccded
2 days later, I took a bike ride tour around the Alviso ponds, during which I saw the fox: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1960207557336090&type=1&l=582dc483b3
Gray foxes are native to California. They are not considered a threat to endangered marsh species like the red fox. This is how you tell red foxes from gray foxes and coyotes: https://emammal.si.edu/north-carolinas-candid-critters/blog/confusing-canids-differentiating-red-foxes-grey-foxes-and
This is from the California Dept. of Fish and Game about managing red foxes: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=22712
On Sunday, 8/12/18, I was biking the Alviso Slough Loop segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail. I biked the trail clockwise, starting at Alviso Marina County Park. First, I followed the Alviso Slough downstream, then turned as the trail followed Coyote Creek upstream. As I approached a bend in the trail, I saw an animal running along the bank of the salt pond. It was a red fox. I've heard about red foxes being in the marshes around the Bay, but in all the years I've biked or hiked on the Bay Trail around the Bay, I've never seen a live one. The fox saw me and ran away, but I was able to get some pictures of it before it disappeared. Fortunately, I had my 30X travelzoom camera with me. Here are some shots of the fox. They are cropped about 2X linearly, so they are roughly equivalent to shots with a 1400 mm lens. While it's neat to see one, it's not good news for the environment. Red foxes are non-native animals that were brought into California in the 1870s from the East Coast for hunting and for the fur trade. The foxes adapted to California and now pose a threat to native animals, particularly the endangered Ridgway's rail (formerly called the clapper rail). https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/27/dont-be-distracted-by-the-red-foxs-beauty-it-has-a-darker-side/
Here's a map of the trail: https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/AlvisoTrail_2013.pdf
It's mostly on National Wildlife Refuge land, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Don_Edwards_San_Francisco_Bay/ResourceManagement.html
On Friday, 8/10/18, I went on a boat tour of the Alviso Slough, offered by the County Parks. Here are pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1934055089951337.1073742432.100000405933924&type=1&l=3ae79ccded
2 days later, I took a bike ride tour around the Alviso ponds, during which I saw the fox: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1960207557336090&type=1&l=582dc483b3
Gray foxes are native to California. They are not considered a threat to endangered marsh species like the red fox. This is how you tell red foxes from gray foxes and coyotes: https://emammal.si.edu/north-carolinas-candid-critters/blog/confusing-canids-differentiating-red-foxes-grey-foxes-and
This is from the California Dept. of Fish and Game about managing red foxes: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=22712
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Radha Radharadha and 61 others like this.
David Poeschel
Unfortunately, they are considered a problem due to the predation on bird nests and other sensitive species while not so much for the native gray fox. http://
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