Collared desert kit fox, courtesy California Department of Fish and Game

When we covered the canine distemper outbreak in desert kit foxes in California a few weeks ago (read the story here), we didn’t mention the solar project that is being built nearby because it didn’t seem relevant.

But other people think that solar project is relevant. Chris Clarke, a Palm Springs-based environmental journalist got the ball rolling with a commentary on Southern California Community Television wondering if the distemper could have been spread by the coyote urine used to haze the kit foxes away from the construction zone.

Read his KCET commentary here.

Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, sent an email to ProMED saying that the coyote urine probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, since foxes and coyotes cross paths so often.

But if the solar project had any influence on the distemper outbreak, it was probably stress, said Deana Clifford, state wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game in an article on the solar project in the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times article has five paragraphs on the desert kit fox situation at the solar site on the first on-line page of the article. Read it here.