California Photographer Captures Rare, Intimate Footage of State’s Most Elusive Mammal
For three years, California wildlife photographer Randy Robbins chased a ghost.
Not a mythical creature, but a real one — so rare that fewer than 100 are believed to exist. The Sierra Nevada red fox, a high-elevation subspecies of the red fox, lives hidden in the clouds, rarely seen, and perilously close to vanishing forever.
Now, thanks to patience, science, and sheer determination, Robbins has captured three uninterrupted minutes of this elusive animal — the longest and most intimate camera trap footage ever recorded of the species.
“It was really amazing,” Robbins told Fox Weather. “Normally, what you get is a quick glimpse … but this was three minutes of just behavior. It was lounging in the sun and just, you know, being a fox.”
Unlike its lowland cousins, the Sierra Nevada red fox has adapted to life above 6,000 feet — braving harsh winters, thin air, and deep snow. It’s stockier, shaggier, and genetically distinct. But its population is dwindling — not from hunting or habitat loss alone, but from inbreeding. The isolation that once protected it now threatens its survival.
“We’re a couple generations away from these foxes dying out,” Robbins said. “Telling their story matters. People care — and people want them to be saved.”
To even glimpse the animal, Robbins relied on camera traps, deep research, and quiet intuition. Last winter, he set up a camera in Lassen Volcanic National Park, one of the fox’s final strongholds, at 8,500 feet. A narrow ledge overlooked a ravine lined with rocks — a favored route for the foxes when snow blankets the land.
He set the camera, hiked back down, and waited through months of snow.
In June, he returned. The snow had melted. The camera was still there. He pressed play.
And there it was.
A single Sierra Nevada red fox pads into frame. It pauses, sniffs the ground, and gazes out over a vast, silent, snow-covered wilderness. It lifts its nose, sniffs the air, and sits. For a moment — a rare, precious moment — it simply exists.
Three uninterrupted minutes of peace, solitude, and life on the edge of extinction.