Watch: Rare footage captures endangered baby foxes frolicking in California desert
San Joaquin kit foxes are native to California and endangered, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Watch: Family of tiny endangered foxes caught on camera
Video captured on a California Bureau of Land Management trail camera in March shows a family of kit foxes, a rare and endangered species of fox, running around near the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
SANTA MARGARITA, Calif.– A family of some of the littlest foxes in North America was caught on camera running through the California desert.
Kit foxes are nocturnal animals who mostly come out at night to do their hunting.
San Joaquin kit foxes, the foxes pictured in the video, are native to California and endangered, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Fully grown, San Joaquin kit foxes only weigh about 5 pounds, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
A California Bureau of Land Management trail camera near the Carrizo Plain National Monument recorded the foxes at their den, around 2 a.m. in late March.
In the video, the tiny kit foxes run after each other, eyes aglow in the night-vision camera. Kit foxes can be identified by their tan bodies and black-tipped tails, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
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Kit foxes pictured on a California Bureau of Land Management trail camera in California.
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Kit foxes have large ears that dissipate heat, helping keep the foxes cool in the desert.
It appears there are six kit foxes in total; some adults and some smaller kits, or baby foxes.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said San Joaquin kit foxes face a number of threats in the wild, such as habitat loss, diseases, wildfire and predation and competition from other animals.
All of these factors lead to the death of the foxes, as well as a reduction in their prey populations.
Philip Oviatt, a spokesperson for the Central California District of the Bureau of Land Management, said kit foxes thrive in the area near the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
The area is known for its wildflowers, but when visiting you may come across some wildlife like elk, many bird species and the blunt-nosed leopard lizard.
Oviatt said the specific group of San Joaquin kit foxes seen in the video has moved on from their den in the area around the Carrizo Plain, but they come and go quite often.