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    • May 9, 2022

    A camera trap photo of a Sierra Nevada red fox walking left.
    Sierra Nevada red fox near brush and rocks at night on the Stanislaus National Forest.
    Photograph by US Forest Service (CC BY-NC 2.0)

    The CNDDB has updated our species concept for Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator). Instead of one species record for Sierra Nevada red fox, CNDDB has split Sierra Nevada red fox into two species concepts representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ two Distinct Population Segments (DPS) with different Federal legal status:

    Common Name Scientific Name State Status Federal Status
    Sierra Nevada red fox
    southern Cascades DPS
    Vulpes vulpes necator pop.1 Threatened None
    Sierra Nevada red fox
    Sierra Nevada DPS
    Vulpes vulpes necator pop.2 Threatened Endangered

    The Sierra Nevada red fox is a native montane red fox and one of California’s rarest mammals. The subspecies was originally described in 1900 based on a collection from the Big Whitney Meadow area of Inyo National Forest in 1891, hence “Sierra Nevada” red fox, but is known to range from the southern Sierra Nevada to Mount Hood in the Cascade Mountains of northern Oregon. In California, Sierra Nevada red foxes were historically known from the high Sierra Nevada Mountains from Sequoia National Forest to Tahoe National Forest, the Cascade Mountains near Mount Lassen, and into the eastern Klamath Mountains. The current consensus is that there is a small extant population near Lassen Volcanic National Park and a small population near Sonora Pass and Yosemite National Park. The State of California listed the Sierra Nevada red fox as Threatened under the California Endangered Species Act in 1980.

    Recently the Sierra Nevada red fox was petitioned for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act. In their assessment of native montane red foxes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined there was two discrete Distinct Population Segments (DPS) of Sierra Nevada red fox: “a southern Cascade population in the Cascades Mountains of northern California and Oregon, and a Sierra Nevada population in the Sierra Nevada Mountains” (USFWS 2015, pages 61011-61013). Subsequently, the Service determined that listing of the southern Cascades DPS was not warranted, but that the Sierra Nevada DPS was Endangered (USFWS 2021).

    To reflect the different legal status of the two populations in California, CNDDB has implemented the two population element concepts noted above. However, whereas the DPS determination is a recent evaluation of rather disjunct extant populations, CNDDB tracks historical records that are less clear in the delineation of the modern DPS concepts. To separate the historical Element Occurrences in the database, the Middle Fork Feather River to the town of Beckwourth and California Highway 70 east of that point was used as a dividing line between DPSs. Highway 70 is not meant to represent a real barrier to dispersal and does not carry any legal representation of the DPS split. This highway only serves as a convenient landmark delineating the two DPSs for data management purposes.

    Map of the Sierra Nevada red fox Distinct Population Segments

    Resources:

    Categories: General
    • January 12, 2022

    side view of a California roach (fish)
    California roach (Hesperoleucus symmetricus) photographed by © Robin Gwen Agarwal

    Roach are a small (~4 inch), stout bodied minnow in the family Cyprinidae and are distributed throughout much of central California. Various populations of roach have been recognized as California fish Species of Special Concern since the first edition of that project (Moyle et al. 1989) and all naturally occurring populations continue to be recognized as Fish Species of Special Concern (Moyle et al. 2015).

    The taxonomy and nomenclature of roach (and closely related hitch) has been unsettled and complicated over the past 30+ years with various subspecies suggested but not formally described, as well as the genus being lumped or separated with hitch (Hesperoleucus or Lavinia?). Complicating this for CNDDB subscribers is that CNDDB had not updated their species concepts (elements) since about 2010 and they have not aligned with the species profiles presented in the most recent Fish Species of Special Concern (Moyle et al. 2015). The 2015 Fish Species of Special Concern acknowledged that “…a thorough analysis needs to be published in the peer-reviewed literature in order to solidify this taxonomy” (Moyle et al. 2015 page 3 of Central California Roach species account). Subsequent to the 2015 Fish Species of Special Concern, genetic analysis of roach were published in 2017 (Baumsteiger et al. 2017) and in 2019 a formal nomenclature article was published providing names and descriptions supported by the genetic analysis (Baumsteiger & Moyle 2019).

    In reviewing the best available information to update our nomenclature, CNDDB opted to adopt the entity concepts presented by Baumsteiger & Moyle (2019) that builds on and clarifies the previous concepts presented in the 2015 Fish Species of Special Concern. Additionally, CNDDB recognizes that the species accounts in the 2015 report are some of the most detailed accounts for the various roach populations. Generally, across the landscape, the distribution of roach has not changed; what has changed is the names applied to all of those previously known populations. The 2015 Fish Species of Special Concern recognized 3 roach species with 3 named subspecies and 4 undescribed subspecies. This new arrangement recognizes 4 roach species with 4 named subspecies.

    Please reference the enclosed table (PDF) cross walking the roach entity concepts between CNDDB circa 2010, the 2015 Fish Species of Special Concern, Baumsteiger & Moyle 2019, and the updated CNDDB elements as of November 2021. Further, the enclosed figure (PDF) shows the distribution of roach with the different entity concepts over the same time period.

    4 maps that crosswalk the changes in California roach complex over time

    References and resources

    Individual species accounts:

    1. Central California Roach (PDF)
    2. Red Hills Roach (PDF)
    3. Russian River Roach (PDF)
    4. Clear Lake Roach (PDF)
    5. Monterey Roach (PDF)
    6. Navarro Roach (PDF)
    7. Tomales Roach (PDF)
    8. Gualala Roach (PDF)
    9. Northern Roach (PDF)

    Categories: General
    • August 26, 2021

    CNDDB recently celebrated the creation of our 100,000th element occurrence! For those of you who don’t know, element occurrences are summaries of all we know about a species in an area. An element occurrence could be a single detection, or a summary of 100 years’ worth of data.

    While this milestone could not be achieved without the dedicated staff who have sifted through data and organized it all, we need to give the real credit where it is due. To all our contributors, thank you! The CNDDB is a testament to your passion and dogged efforts to protect California’s wild species.

    We will continue to collect, aggregate, and distribute rare species data that biologists all over California have contributed to assist in better conservation and species management. Join our effort by submitting your detections of rare species through our Online Field Survey Form. Let’s reach that next milestone together!

    Categories: General