This conservation strategy may help save red foxes in the Sierra Nevada from extinction.
In the mountains of California, the red fox population is dwindling. Their numbers are already low — an estimated 30 foxes remain in the region — and inbreeding is decreasing the number of viable offspring, endangering them.
Researchers are trying something called genetic rescue, which is "a conservation strategy where outside populations of an animal are introduced to one that's been impacted by inbreeding in order to boost genetic diversity," per CapRadio.
Genetic rescue has worked before, but this solution doesn't necessarily solve the real problem: why these foxes are endangered in the first place.
Climate change is one of the major reasons why animals are going extinct. The global temperature rise is simply too rapid for animals to adapt, and they die.
"Global warming is projected to commit over one-third of the Earth's animal and plant species to extinction by 2050 if current greenhouse gas emissions trajectories continue," the Center for Biological Diversity reported.
If we want to stop animal extinction at the source, then it's a matter of addressing climate change. Still, conservation efforts can make a real difference. The "extinction rates for birds and mammals would have been three to four times higher [without conservation efforts since 1993]," according to The Guardian.
This year, thanks to three decades of conservation efforts, the population of the world's smallest pig increased to 200. We also saved a species of finch and kingfisher.
CapRadio spoke with Cate Quinn, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service. She authored a study about the Sierra Nevada red foxes and hopes to help save other endangered animals too.
🗣️ Should we be actively working to kill invasive species?
🔘 Absolutely 💯
🔘 It depends on the species 🤔
🔘 I don't know 🤷
🔘 No — leave nature alone 🙅
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Quinn hopes that "whatever happens … we maximize the learning potential for all of this. … There's potentially a lot we could learn that then we could apply to other species in similar conditions.
"And so thinking about it in terms of, not even success or failure, but how can we extract as much information from this to do conservation better and in other species."
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