This photo -- thought to be of a rare mountain fox -- was captured with a motion-activated, infrared camera on Mount Hood.
credit:
Cascadia Wild
This photo -- thought to be of a rare mountain fox -- was captured with a motion-activated, infrared camera on Mount Hood.
credit:
Cascadia Wild
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Photos from an automated trail camera on Mount Hood appear to show a rare mountain fox that’s known to exist in California, but isn’t well documented in Oregon.
Scientists hope to get hair and saliva samples for DNA tests that could confirm they’re Sierra Nevada red foxes, one of the rarest mammals in North America. The federal government is considering Endangered Species Act protection for them.
The photos were taken in March by cameras set out by Cascadia Wild of Portland, which teaches people to track animals in the wild.
The last hard evidence for the animal in Oregon was a DNA test of a skin dating to 1939.
In recent years, trail cameras in the southern Cascades near Crater Lake have taken photos thought to be the fox.
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