September 17 is International Fox Day. What better day to pay homage to all foxes, then by sharing my experiences with the absolutely unflinching Channel Island fox.
I have had the honor and privilege to work side-by-side with my daughter, Dr. Jessica Sanchez, on Santa Cruz Island for a week during each of the past several years as she administers health checks and vaccinations to the foxes. Dr. Sanchez is a wildlife veterinarian who began her career in the early 2000’s working at the island fox captive breeding pens and is a member at large on FIF’s board of directors.
So, what do I mean by “unflinching?” Let me explain. It is very exciting to be checking a trapline grid and get the signal that there is a fox in the trap. (Island foxes are captured in safe capture cages)
The first task is to get a weight of the trap with the fox in it.
Next, the fox is scanned for a PIT tag number to determine if it is already in the fox database. If no tag is found, that means we have just caught a brand-new fox, and the adrenaline starts to rise! This fox’s health check has just taken a detour. It is first given a PIT tag which contains a unique ID number. This involves placing a microchip the size of a grain of rice under the skin between the shoulder blades.
PIT or Passive Integrated Transponder tags
Unbelievably, the fox does not flinch.
Next, it is necessary to draw blood for purposes of DNA and disease surveillance research. By this time, the fox has a cute green mask over its eyes and is laying on its back in the lap of the biologist/veterinarian. Typically, if it is not a pup of the year, up to 10 ccs of blood can be collected. Guess what? The fox does not flinch during this process.
Next comes the basics of the health check: checking its eyes, assigning it an age class by viewing the back molars, combing it for parasites, assessing its general body condition, and noting whether it has any signs of reproduction that year.
Then comes a major health component. Each fox that is determined eligible (new pups of the year are excluded) are given two vaccinations: a canine distemper (CDV) vaccine administered intramuscularly in the hind leg; after which the fox is turned to the other side and a rabies vaccine is administered subcutaneously. You guessed it – neither prick elicits any noticeable flinch from the fox patient.
As I securely hold the fox next to my chest, its green mask is removed before release, and the REAL flinch test is about to occur. As a whisker is plucked from each side of the fox’s face with a pair of tweezers, I am flinching on the inside with anticipation. Using stable isotope technology, a whisker can tell the secrets of what that individual fox has been eating for the last six months. But other than a moment of tautness, there is zero fox flinch.
The average island fox only tips the scale at 3-5 pounds. But it is the apex predator on each of the six islands on which it lives, and is not about to show any sign of being anything less than ferocious! When the fox is finally released, it typically runs about 20 yards away, turns and stares you down, and then lifts its leg as if to say “thanks, but no thanks, piss on you!”
