Photographer Snaps Pics of Animal Scientists Thought Was Extinct

When wildlife photographer and director of conservation and environmental education for La Fundación de Parques y Museos de Cozumel, Rafael Chacón, heard about a small, disoriented fox on the side of a highway in Cozumel, he knew he had to go. According to Smithsonian Magazine, he grabbed his camera and snapped the first photos of the rare and elusive Cozumel dwarf fox in 20 years.

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“Seeing this fox standing there, calm and beautiful in its natural habitat, felt almost unreal,” Rafael told Smithsonian magazine. “The moment … was truly unforgettable.”

Rafael Chacón and others released more information about the discovery in the May 2026 issue of Neotropical Biology and Conservation. The last time anyone reported seeing a Cozumel dwarf fox was in 2001.

“Virtually nothing is known about this population, and no species-specific, systematic survey has ever been conducted,” the paper explains. “However, it is considered critically endangered by scientific consensus and likely on the brink of extinction.”

After finding the dwarf fox, skilled individuals took it to a veterinarian and released it back into the wild. Travis Bayer, a founder and executive director of the conservation organization Pathos Wildlife, told Smithsonian Magazine that they’ve installed 84 remote cameras and hair snares to collect DNA samples.

“While [the] photographic evidence confirms the existence and survival of the Cozumel fox, it remains unstudied in the wild, undescribed by science, unassessed by the [International Union for Conservation of Nature] and unprotected while at immediate risk of extinction,” he said. “Without efforts to document and describe the species, they risk disappearing before they’re even known.”

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