Endangered Species! - San Joaquin Kit Fox
Ronald W. Schlorff©
Original (12 x 16) - $1250.00
The San Joaquin kit fox is just one of almost 300 species of animals and plants that have been
designated as threatened or endangered in California. This small arid-land adapted predator has
been on the federal endangered species list since 1967 - one of the first animals to be so designated.
The main cause of the decline of the kit fox has been the loss of habitat to irrigated crops such as
cotton. The delivery of vast quantities of cheap water from northern California to more arid regions
in the south has been the undoing of not only the kit fox but several other plants and animals as well.
So, whenever you hear about the so-called "greening of the desert" in California and elsewhere,
remember that several species call the desert their home and can not quickly adjust to radical
changes in the habitats they have evolved with - the kit fox is a case in point.
In this painting I have tried to capture both the intense concentration and inquisitive nature of the
kit fox. Although a member of the canid family that includes wolves and the family dog, the kit fox
is more reminiscent of a small cat in its behavior. Weighing a mere five pounds, kit foxes, along
with their close cousins the swift foxes of the Great Plains regions of North America, are highly
efficient little predators. They live on a diet of small mammals such as kangaroo rats but can also
take animals as large as cottontail rabbits. In the painting the kit fox may be investigating its dry
grassy and weedy habitat for its next meal or it may be staying out of sight of its own enemies, the
coyote and the bobcat.
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