摘要:Dusk arrives just as a San Joaquin kit fox pops out of its den andscans the horizon—hoping for an easy meal. To survive, this foxspecies depends upon mice, kangaroo rats and other small animalsthat also call the California grasslands home. But with more andmore prime habitat disappearing under shopping malls, roads and housing tracts, the future of thisfederally endangered fox is uncertain. Today, there are fewer than 7,000 of these housecat-sized foxesleft. It is not alone in its plight.