The Island Fox has Friends

If you have seen the Island Fox San Miguel Island 2006 Release video, you have heard the original music of David Lynch.

David’s guitar solos add heart and bounce to the video. One of the themes used in the video has currently climbed to #8 of 2,480 on the Neil Young website for original music. You can help David climb even higher in the ranking by placing your vote for the song "Mahatma"at: neilyoung.com

Complete versions of David Lynch’s music can be found on his CD “Dozen” available through his website.
David Lynch

The video was also edited by island fox friend Michael Lawshe. Michael is nominated for a Golden Reel Award this Saturday, February 23 for his work as Sound Supervisor on Smallville. Check out his blog at Soundzgood.info

CLICK the picture to watch the video.




The photo at the top, was taken by Peter Pendergest.

Without help from friends like David, Michael and Peter we wouldn’t have a video of the island foxes to show the public or photos to post on our website. Friends of the Island Fox thanks them for their support of island fox conservation and appreciates their efforts to get involved in helping to save the island fox.

Island Romance - Island Fox Mating Season

Island Romance - Island Fox Mating Season

Are you contemplating romance and Valentine’s Day? So are the island foxes. The cold blustery days from December to February are the perfect season for California’s Channel Island foxes to pair up and settle down in a cozy den.

During autumn, island fox families tend to split up. The youngsters, now over six months old, head off on their own and the parents take a vacation from family life and each other. With the arrival of winter, the monogamous mates come back together. (About the island fox)

Island foxes make their dens in a sheltered location, sometimes underground, in a tree stump or in amongst dense undergrowth. The male and female establish a territory around their den site and settle down to finding food for a family.

A few island foxes born last spring, will also be out looking for a mate. Even though they are less than a year old, some will become parents this spring. Because population numbers are still far below normal on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands, island foxes are breeding younger and having more offspring than they usually would. The abundance of island deer mice and other food items makes it possible for a pair of island foxes to raise five pups instead of the typical two or three.

Valentine’s Day 2008 will be very special on San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands. For the first time since emergency captive breeding began in 2000, ALL of the island foxes on these two islands are once again free-roaming and choosing their own mates.
(2007 fox release on San Miguel Island) (2007 fox release on Santa Cruz Island).

Captive breeding programs saved the island foxes from extinction on both of these islands, but human matchmakers are never as good as the foxes themselves. We can all hope that this year there will be an increased number of island fox pups born on San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands.

Eleven of the island foxes released in Channel Islands National Park are wearing radio-tracking collars funded through donations to Friends of the Island Fox. (radio collars)

Pups born in the spring and foxes slated for release from the captive breeding facility on Santa Rosa Island will soon be needing there own radio tracking collars. Your donation to Friends of the Island Fox helps to provide radio tracking collars vital to monitoring the recovery of endangered island foxes. You can donate through the PayPal and Cause for Good buttons in the upper right .

This Valentine’s Day give a truly romantic gift.
Help support a solution.
Working together we can SAVE the island fox.

Seventh Annual California Islands Symposium

The islands along California’s coast present a unique collection of habitats with various wildlife and human problems and successes. Island foxes live on six of these islands: Six Islands, Six Different Foxes.

Where can you find the most current information from the experts working in the field?

The 7th California Islands Symposium
5-7 February 2008

This gathering will bring together experts in archeology, anthropology, cultural resources, human history, population biology, ecological processes and systems, systematics, geology, paleontology, oceanography, and climatology.

The Symposium is a forum for the presentation of natural and cultural resource information collected on all of the California Islands - the Channel Islands, the Farallones, and the Baja Mexican islands - and their surrounding marine environments.

This important event will take place at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Oxnard, California. Presenters will include:

• Tim Coonan from the National Park Service (podcast with Tim Coonan)
• Julie King from the Catalina Island Conservancy (podcast with Julie King)
• Cathy Schwemm, biologist and FIF Secretary

On-site registration
Three days: $200
One-day: $75
Student: $125

There will be a poster session and book signing event Tuesday evening, Feb. 5, from 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Poster session fee for educators: $10

Book Signing Authors:

• Torben C. Rick - The Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Late Holocene San Miguel Island
• Jan Timbrook - Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge among the Chumash People of Southern California
• Araceli Samaniego Herrera, Anny Peralta Garcia, and Alfonso Aguirre Munoz, editors - Vertebrados de las islas del Pacífico de Baja California. Guía de campo (Mammals of the Pacific Islands of Baja California.)
• Betsy Lester Roberti - San Miguel Island: A Childhood Memoir

For more details and a complete listing of presentations: http://www.californiaislands.org/