Alameda Creek Alliance

 

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Endangered Mammals

 

Endangered mammals in the Alameda Creek watershed

San Joaquin Kit Fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica)

Status: Federally endangered
Habitats: Grassland, scrubland, and wetland communities; today kit foxes must often resort to living in and near agricultural and urban areas
Threats: Habitat loss and degradation, rodenticides and pesticides, and predation and competition from coyotes
Locations in Alameda Creek watershed: North Livermore, northeastern Alameda County, Altamont Pass

Center for Biological Diversity information page on San Joaquin Kit Fox

Fact Sheet from the EPA about San Joaquin Kit Fox

Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontymys raviventris)

Status: Federally endangered, state endangered
Habitats: Dense pickleweed with adjoining grasslands for mice to seek refuge during highest tides
Threats: Development of bayside marshland, pollution, pesticides, boat activity, commercial salt harvesting, invasive plant encroachment on habitats
Locations in Alameda Creek watershed: In saltwater marshes and tidal channels along the Bay in Union City, Fremont and Newark

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Sevice information page on Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse

Fact Sheet from the EPA about Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse

Berkeley Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys heermanni berkeleyensis)

Habitats: Open grassy hilltops and bare ridges near rocky outcrops and on thin soils with scattered chaparral species and small annual grasses
Threats: Ground squirrel poisoning, habitat loss to urbanization and feral predators such as cats
Locations in Alameda Creek watershed: Thought to have been extinct since the 1940s, but recent kangaroo rats surveyed in Ohlone Regional Wilderness may belong to this species

Bioaccumulation article on Berkeley Kangaroo Rat