Lucknow: A security camera has captured images of a Himalayan red fox near the Kedarnath temple, allaying fears that the species has permanently left the area after the cloudburst and flash floods of 2013.

The first sighting of a red fox since the 2013 summer had come last January, also via a security camera, but the one-off observation wasn't enough to rule out an animal having strayed briefly from somewhere else.

But the January 2 follow-up this year raises the hope that "some of the animals must have survived against all odds", said Mayank Shekhar Jha, divisional forest officer of Rudraprayag district.

The footage shows a fox, about two to three years old, playing in the ice near the Saraswati Ghat, about 250 metres from the snow-girdled Kedarnath shrine that is devoid of human presence for about two months during deep winter.

Local administration officials in Uttarakhand keep remotely monitoring the temple's security cameras. "It's good to learn that the red fox is still there in our mountains," said Mangesh Ghildiyal, district magistrate of Rudraprayag.

The Himalayan red fox, distinguished by its soft and thick fur, lives for about 14 years and is typically found at altitudes between 1,500 and 4,500 metres. It's also found in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the northern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.

A wildlife biologist who has studied the species in Himachal said the red fox is not considered to be under threat.

"It's an adaptable species. In some places, it may live alongside humans, feeding on garbage and livestock," said Yash Veer Bhatnagar, who is with the Nature Conservation Foundation.