No, this this is not a pretty picture, but it is an important one. These endangered foxes in the southern San Joaquin Valley forge a grim bargain to survive in the urban areas where they are still found.  In and around Bakersfield, where kit foxes cling to survival by adapting to a life of scavengery, they face a host of dangers - the greatest of which is death on the road. This is how most kit foxes perish.

The horror of the event is magnified by the fact this was a nursing female at the height of the pupping season - meaning her brood of pups will almost certainly starve.

I have just begun working on these threatened foxes, and will be traveling to a wilder, non-urban setting in southern California next week. It will do my heart good.

 

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 24-70mm lens

Life, Color, Drama, Reality .... No Digital Manipulation