There is a significant need to determine the current status of the San Joaquin kit fox in the northern extent of its range. The last peer-reviewed account of this question was addressed in 1993. Here we report our findings of an extensive literature review of the San Joaquin kit fox in the northern range and status conclusions extrapolated from these reviews. Possible reasons for lack of a robust kit fox population in the northern range may include lack of the preferred Heteromyid prey item, higher predatory pressures, and lack of new immigrant foxes from southern core populations. Various characteristics lead to this prediction; namely, the fox occurs at a high trophic level, exhibits a low population density, has a relatively slow life history, and utilizes a small geographic range isolated from larger populations. Other risk factors can be accounted for by anthropogenic activities that have an effect on the fox irrespective of the fox?s ecology, charactering the northern range as a sink population for the San Joaquin kit fox and susceptible to localized extirpation.
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