Study Overview:

The San Joaquin kit fox is a small canid, specially adapted to live in a desert habitat. This California endemic fox was listed as federally endangered on March 11, 1967. The San Joaquin kit fox roams throughout much of the San Joaquin Valley in California. The fox’s range also includes valleys along the Coast Range, including the Panoche and Cuyama valleys and the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County. The San Joaquin kit fox faces a number of threats that lead to direct mortalities, and displacement due to habitat loss.

In partnership with H.T. Harvey & Associates, one Labrador named “Circe” was specially trained  and tested to accurately detect and alert to the scat of the San Joaquin kit fox. Her training included scent discrimination against co-occurring canids such as coyote (Canis latrans), domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).

Circe was deployed for a pre-construction survey to determine the presence and number, or absence, of San Joaquin kit fox in a proposed expansion project site for the University of California, Merced. The survey area was approximately 294 acres. The survey area was determined to be of historic SJKF habitat only, no current activity was detected. This cleared the way for the university to expand its medical department.