<P> Bat - eared fox </P> <P> The species is Eurasian in origin, and may have evolved from either Vulpes alopecoides or the related Chinese V. chikushanensis, both of which lived during the Middle Villafranchian . The earliest fossil specimens of V. vulpes were uncovered in Baranya, Hungary dating from 3.4 - 1.8 million years ago . The ancestral species was likely smaller than the current one, as the earliest red fox fossils are smaller than modern populations . The earliest fossil remains of the modern species date back to the mid-Pleistocene in association with the refuse of early human settlements . This has led to the theory that the red fox was hunted by primitive humans as both a source of food and pelts . </P> <P> Red foxes colonised the North American continent in two waves: during or before the Illinoian glaciation, and during the Wisconsinan glaciation . Gene mapping demonstrates that red foxes in North America have been isolated from their Old World counterparts for over 400,000 years, thus raising the possibility that speciation has occurred, and that the previous binomial name of Vulpes fulva may be valid . In the far north, red fox fossils have been found in Sangamonian deposits in the Fairbanks District and Medicine Hat . Fossils dating from the Wisconsian are present in 25 sites in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming . Although they ranged far south during the Wisconsinan, the onset of warm conditions shrank their range toward the north, and have only recently reclaimed their former American ranges because of human - induced environmental changes . Genetic testing indicates two distinct red fox refugia exist in North America, which have been separated since the Wisconsinan . The northern (or boreal) refugium occurs in Alaska and western Canada, and consists of the large subspecies V. v. alascensis, V. v. abietorum, V. v. regalis, and V. v. rubricosa . The southern (or montane) refugium occurs in the subalpine parklands and alpine meadows of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada . It encompasses the subspecies V. v. macroura, V. v. cascadensis, and V. v. necator . The latter clade has been separated from all other red fox populations since the last glacial maximum, and may possess unique ecological or physiological adaptations . </P> <P> Although European foxes were introduced to portions of the United States in the 1900s recent genetic investigation indicates an absence of European fox haplotypes in any North American populations . Also, introduced eastern red foxes have colonized southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area, but appear to have mixed with the Sacramento Valley red fox V. v. patwin only in a narrow hybrid zone . In addition, no evidence is seen of interbreeding of eastern red foxes in California with the montane Sierra Nevada red fox V. v. necator or other populations in the Intermountain West (between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges to the west . </P>

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