Kit foxes make themselves at home within Bakersfield city limits

[Liberal_in_LA]

San Joaquin kit foxes are small, cute, nocturnal, opportunistic and endangered. As many as 400 of them have burrowed beneath golf courses, subdivisions and classrooms — and into the hearts of many residents.







The rare little foxes come out mostly at night. They find fabulous food everywhere: chunks of cheeseburger from dumpsters, shreds of taco on windblown wrappers. And the accommodations: What can beat a cozy den in the student quarter — specifically, beneath portable classrooms in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District?

The 17,000-student district isn't crazy about the foxes, especially when about one-third of its 23 elementary and junior high schools have to deal with them on a regular basis. Administrators have offered a wildlife biologist $25,000 for a plan to manage the endangered species, which is literally, and uneasily, underfoot.

Mostly nocturnal, the achingly cute 5-pound critters sometimes emerge early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Their burrows can also house skunks and feral cats; officials say odors enter classrooms along with fleas.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kit-fox-20120220,0,2922454.story

[Earth_First]

1. Best managment plan: eleminate habitat destruction

I'll take that $25,000 check made out to CASH, please...