{"id":172688,"date":"2026-02-11T00:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172688\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T00:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:47:08","slug":"california-is-gps-tracking-a-sierra-nevada-red-fox-for-the-first-time-why-this-is-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172688\/","title":{"rendered":"California is GPS tracking a Sierra Nevada red fox for the first time. Why this is a big deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Topline:<\/p>\n<p>    The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is now tracking the movements of a Sierra Nevada red fox \u2014 an endangered species \u2014 for the very first time after a decade of tracking efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What we know: The fox was captured in January near Mammoth Lakes, according to the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/wildlife.ca.gov\/News\/Archive\/cdfw-announces-first-capture-and-gps-collar-of-sierra-nevada-red-fox-in-the-southern-sierra-nevada\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">department\u2019s announcement<\/a>. Officials fitted the animal with a GPS-tracking collar before releasing it.<\/p>\n<p>Why it matters: The Sierra Nevada red foxes are protected by the state as an endangered species. The tracking device will allow scientists to better understand the movements and needs of the red fox. This specific kind of red fox can only be found in parts of California and Oregon but is extremely rare and elusive, according to scientists.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re enjoying this article, you&#8217;ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.  <\/p>\n<p>How did the foxes become endangered? The reasons are mostly unknown, but it\u2019s likely that unregulated hunting and trapping played a big role.<\/p>\n<p>A decade-long effort: \u201cThis represents the culmination of 10 years of remote camera and scat surveys to determine the range of the fox in the southern Sierra, and three years of intensive trapping efforts,\u201d CDFW Environmental Scientist Julia Lawson said in a statement. \u201cOur goal is to use what we learn from this collared animal to work toward recovering the population in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you think you\u2019ve spotted one \u2026 <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/wildlife.ca.gov\/Conservation\/Mammals\/Sierra-Nevada-Red-Fox\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">report it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline: The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is now tracking the movements of a Sierra Nevada red&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,16939,82654,82656,82655],"class_list":["post-172688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cdfw","tag-gps-collar","tag-red-fox","tag-sierra-nevada-red-fox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}