Microchips Identify an Island Fox For Life

microchips or PIT tags beside a penny

What's smaller than a penny and vital to island fox conservation? Microchips or passive integrated transponder tags (PIT tags).

Unlike a radio tracking collar that monitors the location and activity of an island fox, and has a 1-2 year battery life, these tiny microchips provide individual identification for the life of an island fox.

This technology is called "passive" because there is no battery involved. The tiny capsule is placed under the fox's skin using a hypodermic needle. The microchip stays in place between the shoulders and under the skin throughout the animal's life. When a biologist scans the island fox with a handheld radio-frequency reading device, the circuitry in the microchip sends an individualized code back to the reader.

The code in each microchip is different, enabling each individual island fox to have its own unique identification number. These microchips are similar to those used in pet dogs and cats. They were first used in fish like salmon, so that individual salmon could be counted as they swam past a submerged reader. The animal just has to come in close proximity to the reader for the information to be transferred.

Microchips not only identify each individual endangered island fox, they provide the ability to track data on individual animals as they mature, produce offspring and age. Not all island foxes wear radio collars and it is impossible for biologists to physically identify all of the individual island foxes. Island foxes are like people and they change in appearance over time. See if you can identify an individual island fox. 

When an island fox is caught during its first fall counting, it receives a health check and a microchip. From that moment on, it is known as an individual. For example: A female island fox was caught in September 2012 on the east end of Santa Catalina Island. She had numerous bite wounds from another island fox. Her injuries were treated topically and she was released. 

A month later in October 2012 a female island fox was caught on the west end of the island. The microchip ID revealed it was the same female. She was the first female island fox known to have traveled across the narrow isthmus since the foxes on Catalina became endangered. She traveled over 10 miles to get away from the territory of her aggressor.

Channel Islands National Park biologists have challenged FIF to:

Fund microchips for 250 island foxes in 2013

Each microchip costs $10 

Most of the foxes to be microchipped in the fall will be pups born this month. We made our goal last year. 

You can help us reach our goal of $2,500 for 250 microchips in 2013 by donating today.  

Coastal Clean-up Day 2012 and the Island Fox

You don't have to travel to the Channel Islands to help the endangered Channel Island fox. Kelp forests surrounding the islands provide important habitat for fish and other sea life. Birds and marine mammals depend on these resources, and indirectly so does the island fox.

From our local beach to the islands, trash harms animals and people. You can make a difference.

Friends of the Island Fox and 

the Channel Islands Park Foundation 

invite you to join us on the beach 

for Coastal Clean-up Day

Saturday, Sept. 15 from 9 AM to Noon 

 Meet at Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center

Keeping the local marine habitat debris free is vital to creatures of all shapes and sizes. Island fox and the fishing hook.

We live beside a thriving marine community. You can help keep it that way for island foxes and bald eagles, dolphins and whales, yourself and your family.

Special thanks to photographer Jessica Martinoff for her photos taken on the Friends of the Island Fox Trip to Santa Cruz Island.

Friends of the Island Fox Joins Channel Islands Park Foundation

As we venture into 2011 Friends of the Island Fox is joining with the Channel Islands Park Foundation, the non-profit foundation that supports Channel Islands National Park. 

This new relationship will expand our ability to educate the local community about the endangered island fox and its connection with the Channel Island ecosystem. School programs will continue and grow to include additional island topics. We will continue to support conservation efforts and research across all six of the California islands that are home to the island fox. 

As we begin this New Year we thank all of the our island fox friends who have helped us fund our end-of-the-year conservation goals:

• a total of 60 radio tracking collars for island foxes
• several new "Watch for Foxes" road signs
• support for annual rabies and distemper vaccinations

Your donations will continue to work directly for island fox conservation. Please note that when you use the "Donation" buttons at the upper right, donations will be processed through the Channel Islands Park Foundation but will be designated for the Friends of the Island Fox program.

Be a Friend of the Island Fox

How can you help the endangered island fox?

Everyday humans create mounds of trash. Too often that trash washes off sidewalks into gutters, down storm drains and into the ocean. Bits of plastic are dropped on the ground. Plastic bags swirl in the wind and end up in streams and seas.


A cast off fishing lure left on a rock can mean a horrible injury for a hungry island fox. Fox and the Fishing Hook


A plastic bag or balloon can be mistaken for a jellyfish by a hungry sea turtle.


Bits of plastic on the beach can get swept into the ocean by the incoming tide. Once plastic enters the ocean, fish and birds mistake the colorful bits for food. When they eat the toxic plastics it can mean their death or it can mean they are no longer healthy food for other animals in the foodweb like island foxes and humans.


Friends of the Island Fox is joining forces with the Channel Islands Park Foundation to clean-up the beach near the Channel Island National Park Visitor Center.

Join Us For:

Coastal Clean-Up Day

Sat. September 25, 2010

9 AM - Noon 

For More Information