Reaching a New Milestone - 440 Radio Collars

When does 1+1 = 440?

When an eight-year-old Island Fox Ambassador joins forces with a long-time island fox donor to fund FIF's 440th radio-tracking collar.

 

Rose was along for the ride when her sister Joy chose Channel Islands National Park as one of the parks she'd like to visit as part of the "Every Kid Outside" National Park pass for 4th graders. Visiting from her family home in North Carolina, little sister, Rose became an island fox fan. 

 

The sisters had sewn projects to raise funds for their trip, but rather than spend her earnings on herself, Rose determined to help island foxes.

LeAnn from Wisconsin has been supporting island foxes since 2020. Nearly every month, she sends what she can. Over the course of a year, her selfless efforts add up.

Together Rose and LeAnn have funded Friends of the Island Fox's 440th radio collar. Their collar will be refurbished this spring and fitted on an island fox during the summer/fall 2025 health checks.

$220 refurbishes an island fox radio collar to monitor their survival. More about collars

 

Protecting island foxes takes a community of concerned people. From students to adults, local Californians to people across the U.S. and around the world, island foxes are thriving in the wild because YOU CARE. 

You can become an Island Fox Ambassador, too!

Island Fox Ambassadors Making a Difference

Island Fox Ambassadors help island foxes by:

• educating others about island foxes
• directly supporting island fox conservation in some way
• or improving the island fox's habitat

Magic Wands for Foxes

Benjamin and Larissa in Georgia wanted to help island foxes. They handmade these magic wands and sold them. Their hard work and creative idea help fund the refurbishing of a radio collar that will be going on an island fox this summer.

Cans for Vaccinations

Kris in California became passionate about island foxes when her daughter worked as a biologist on the Channel Islands. She watched island foxes being vaccinated against canine distemper virus and rabies and understood how vital this effort is to island fox survival. 

Kris saw aluminum cans and plastic bottles being discarded as trash  and decided to help island foxes. She's created a neighborhood recycling effort and over the past three months has collect $300 worth of recyclables to vaccinate 15 island foxes.

Island Fox Ambassadors have one thing in common: a desire to help island foxes!

Age is not a requirement - Ambassadors range in age from children to foxy ladies

Ambassadors can be individuals, classes, schools, groups, or even a baseball team.

 You can be an Island Fox Amabassador, too. 

Other Island Fox Ambassadors

Children Helping Island Foxes

Help for island foxes comes from many places. Recently Friends of the Island Fox received this wonderful letter from a concerned student.

Working with her school friends and family, Autumn raised $155 dollars to help island foxes. Her donation can: 

• test 15 island foxes for tick-borne disease (this is a new priority)
  
• provide 15 island foxes with an ID microchip
• support blood tests during island fox health checks
• help fund a radio-monitoring collar
• or contribute to a "Fox-Saver" trash bin that is needed on Catalina Island

No effort to help island foxes is too small. When we all work together, we can make big things happen. 

Autumn joins our growing group of Island Fox Ambassadors - she is helping tell the island fox's story to her community and working to keep island foxes healthy and safe into the future.

Yared raised funds and then traveled all the way from Virginia to visit the island fox.

Meet some other Island Fox Ambassadors:

• Tigran
• Carpinteria Family School
• More Island Fox Ambassador schools

At the Buckley School students had a huge bake sale and one student designed and sold a T-shirt. 

You can become an Island Fox Ambassador too. Individuals, classrooms, grades, even schools and organizations have become Island Fox Ambassadors.

Island Fox Ambassadors:

• raise awareness about the island fox
• they work on a service project to benefit island fox conservation
• they share their efforts with others

Service projects can raise funding, contribute to habitat restoration, or develop a conservation project to help island foxes and other wildlife (such as an effort to vaccinate local pets so they don't transmit disease to wildlife). 

Find out more about becoming an Island Fox Ambassador contact FIF at islandfoxnews@gmail.com

Meet an Island Fox Ambassador - Tigran Nahabedian

While Channel Island foxes have made a remarkable recovery from near extinction (US Fish and Wildlife Announces Recovery of Island Fox), they continue to be rare animals living in small island ecosystems. To survive into the future island foxes need all of us looking out for them.

Tigran Nahabedian has become an active Island Fox Ambassador, helping to spread information about the island fox and working to restore island habitat. Tigran, how did you get interested in the island fox?

Tigran Nahabedian and parents

photo courtesy of Kevin Schafer

I first met the Channel Island fox when I was 5 years old. I took an Island Packers boat to Santa Cruz Island; that will always be a special trip for me because it was on that trip I earned my first Junior Ranger Badge. Very soon after we arrived I saw an island fox resting among some old farming machinery. I thought he was so small and really cute. The island fox is my favorite animal in the National Parks.

The Channel Island fox lives on six of the eight California Islands and it is the only carnivore that occurs only in California and nowhere else. The island fox evolved from the grey fox, but it has fewer tail vertebrae, a shorter tail and is much smaller than the grey fox. They are significantly smaller than most house cats! 

The island fox subspecies on the Northern Channel Islands and Catalina are [currently] listed as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. (Why the island fox became endangered) ...This is the fastest recovery of a mammal under the Endangered Species Act, but it is not all good news because there has been a significant population decline on San Nicholas because of long term drought conditions and frail health of the foxes and the island vegetation.

Tigran and his mother showing an eagle radio transmitter to other children.

I got to help the island fox by working at a booth with the Friends of the Island Fox at the Santa Barbara Zoo for Channel Islands Fox Awareness Day. I spoke to almost 500 people about the fox. I answered questions about the island fox, the Channel Islands, Junior Ranger Badges, Buddy Bison and the eagles at the Channel Islands. This was really special to me because I was able to speak to many children about the fox and the Channel Islands. 

Very few of the children I spoke to have been to the Channel Islands so the zoo was a great place for them to connect to the island fox. If you are near Santa Barbara or coming for a visit you can meet Beau at the Santa Barbara Zoo, he was abandoned as a pup and the US Navy rescued him and brought him to the zoo. He is so cute!

 You can help the Channel Island fox too. You can write reports on the Channel Island fox for your school projects to raise awareness of the fox. You can also donate funds to help the Channel Island fox recovery. You could sell Valentine's Day grams, used books, have a bake sale or lemonade sale, wash cars or you could use some of your allowance from chores and donate the money at ciparkfoundation.org or islandfox.org. You can also visit the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Channel Islands National Park or another event put on by the Friends of the Island Fox and buy one of the really cool Friends of the Island Fox T-shirts. - TIGRAN

Friends of the Island Fox T-shirts come in adult sizes small - extra large and cost $15 + postage. For information on T-shirts contact Pat Meyer at pat@islandfox.org

Island Fox Ambassadors come in all sizes. 

Become an Island Fox Ambassador