fox

Residents spoke about a "plague of rats and cockroaches" and in Balsall Heath, three miles south of the city centre, Matthew Howes watched foxes piling in to tear open the black plastic bags.

Renamed Wind Wolves, it is now the largest privately owned nature preserve on the West Coast, where endangered kit foxes and leopard lizards thrive along with elk, blacktail deer, great horned owls and bobcats.

"My grandfather used to have a smooth fox terrier and I remember seeing an old home film with it in and wondering what type of dog it was," he added.

Most rides take 45-90 minutes and include hills, valleys, clifftops with ocean views and occasional encounters with deer and island foxes.

Ms Townsend studied and attached GPS collars to the Sierra Nevada red fox and the Pacific fisher, which is related to a badger, in attempts to track and preserve the species.