The Unlikely Refuge for the West’s Most Adorable and Endangered Fox

The Unlikely Refuge for the West’s Most Adorable and Endangered Fox

Drought and development are decimating the San Joaquin kit fox. But the imperiled, pint-size predator has found a surprising sanctuary: Bakersfield, the honky-tonk California oil patch famous for being the hometown of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

This fast-growing city’s irrigated golf links, school campuses, and roadside greenways are providing an unlikely urban redoubt for the cat-size foxes—one that may save the species from extinction.

Read more here.