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