Friends of the Island Fox Welcomes Mike Watling as President

Meet Mike Watling. On July 1, 2021 he became FIF's new President. 

Dear Fox Friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the incoming president of Friends of the Island Fox.

I have been a member of the FIF advisory committee for the past five years and a member of the Board for the past year, helping to shape the future of FIF following the delisting of the island fox. My background is in the biomedical field where for the past 23 years I have been working on diagnostic test kits for human cancer. I am also trained as a California naturalist through the University of California, certified as a wildlife tracker through CyberTracker North America, and a volunteer naturalist with Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. (He's also a great wildlife photographer.)

I am very passionate about the wildlife of California and especially the wildlife that inhabits the Channel Islands. I am very fortunate to be able to serve an organization such as Friends of the Island Fox. 

I'm also married with two daughters: one a wildlife biologist in northern California and the other a pre-veterinary student at California State University Channel Islands.

The global pandemic and worsening drought in California, and throughout the west, have strengthened FIF's commitment to provide grant funding for researchers seeking more knowledge about fox diet, microbiome, range size, interactions with the island spotted skunk, as well as our continued support for radio collars and vaccines. 

Your generous contributions have made these things possible. The mission of FIF is to work together to protect the island fox and their island home and that focus will remain as strong going forward as it has in the past. Its Science, for Fox Sake!

Best,

Mike Watling

President, Friends of the Island Fox

Mike@islandfox.org

 

Meet the entire FIF Board of Directors 2021

See Mike's posts on Identifying the Foxes of North America

Apply for the FIF 2021 Research Grant (now through Aug. 31)

Island Journal - A Visit to San Miguel Island

A visit to San Miguel Island is a rare opportunity. Island foxes are few and the land is windswept. Experience a firsthand trip to this remote Channel Island.
 

Island Journal - San Miguel Island 

San Miguel Island lies at the top of the Southern California Bight, 26 miles from Point Conception. The western most of the Channel Islands, San Miguel receives the full force of the cold California current sweeping past its shores.

Recently, I went on a rarely offered day trip to San Miguel to observe firsthand how the island is recovering from years of ranching and to get a feeling of what island life must endure to survive there. 

After a night of light rain and distant thunder, the morning was overcast, but dry. On the boat trip out, the winds were light as was the swell.  The crossing was direct to San Miguel, approximately a 3-hour trip. About an hour out of Ventura, we spotted the blow of a Humpback whale.  The Islander Packers' boat took time to observe the mighty cetacean feeding in the channel.  A few minutes later, we observed 2 more blows further out.

Santa Cruz Island and Santa Rosa Island slowly passed by on our port side. Eventually, San Miguel came into view. 
 
There is no pier on San Miguel which means we landed by skiff. It's common to have large breakers at the beach on Miguel, which can easily swamp a skiff. Fortunately, the seas remained uncharacteristically calm. We arrived on schedule at 11:15 with 110 people on-board and 2 skiffs. Each skiff  holds 6 passengers. It took approximately 30 minutes to get everyone ashore. Once on the island we had  the mandatory island briefing by the National Park Service (NPS) naturalist.

San Miguel island is owned by the US Navy and managed by the NPS.  During WWII and through to the 1970s, San Miguel was used as a Navy bombing range. To protect visitors from any hazards that might still exist (the Navy did a complete survey in 2016 and found no unexploded ordnance), and to protect the natural resources, visitors must hike in escorted groups. However, you can freely explore the mile-long beach at Cuyler Harbor and hike up to the nearby ranger station and campground. 

coreopsis

To access the island interior, we hiked from the beach up the steep Nidever Canyon for approximately a half mile, gaining 600 feet in the process. The canyon is a great example of how the island is recovering. There is an incredible display of native vegetation; very healthy coastal sagebrush and coastal bluff scrub plant communities with coreopsis, buckwheat, and dudleya. Once on top, we were afforded terrific views of Cuyler Harbor. 

Our instructions were to be back on the beach by 2:30 to begin the skiffing process back to the boat for a 3:30 departure back to Ventura, which didn’t leave much time for exploring. I decided to check out the Cabrillo Monument and wander near the ranger station.

At the ranger station, I ran into one of the fox biologists that I know, so wandering became gabbing about fox whiskers and how ice plant travels the digestive system of the fox much like celery travels ours. Perhaps TMI, but hey...that’s what we talk about and that’s one way information gets passed on.

Talking scat passes the time quickly and I had to head back to the beach. On the beach, a juvenile elephant seal was thermoregulating. They're one of the pinniped species which call San Miguel Island home.

The route back to Ventura Harbor took us along the north side of Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands with a stop in Painted Cave, one of the largest sea caves in the world. The winds remained light and sea was like glass.

We were treated to numerous pods of common dolphins, numbering in the thousands, as well as two minke whales, the smallest of the great whales.

We also spotted the same humpback whale, very close to where we spotted it in the morning. (Humpbacks can be identified by the markings on their tail flukes). The Santa Barbara channel did not disappoint! 

No fox sightings to report, but I did see the tell-tale signs of their presence, chiefly scat, littered about in typical fox fashion. 

The day to San Miguel didn’t become the island exploration I first believed it would, but instead became a time to develop a deeper appreciation for the whole ecosystem that encompasses the Channel Islands. An ecosystem where the tiniest zooplankton feeds the mightiest whales. An ecosystem where man’s impact can have a profound negative impact or bring a species back from the brink of extinction. - Mike Watling, FIF Advisory Board

Tracking Island Foxes with Mike 

More on San Miguel Island 

Video from San Miguel Island  by the fox biologist Mike mentions

More on the Whisker Research and Scat

Tracking An Island Fox

Welcome guest writer Mike Watling. As a certified wildlife tracker and member of Ventura County Wildlife Trackers, Mike shares his expertise in identifying island fox tracks.

Visiting Santa Cruz Island this past winter, I was more excited than usual as it had rained a few days prior to the trip. The miracle of mud, following a rain, provides an excellent medium for studying the tracks left behind by animals. As a naturalist and wildlife tracker, I was looking forward to spending my day carefully observing the minute details of the delicate tracks of the Channel Island fox.

The island fox and its mainland cousin the gray fox are the only fox species capable of climbing trees. The island fox is the island's largest mammal and main predator; the top dog if you will.

Unlike the gray fox, which is primarily a nocturnal hunter, the island fox is active both day and night and can be readily observed foraging for lizards, insects, and fruit that comprise a large portion of its diet. To help conserve energy, foxes will often travel on the roads and trails found throughout the Channel Islands, leaving behind tiny tracks for the observant naturalist to find. 

Like all species in the Canidae family, the fox places its feet on the ground in a manner known as digitigrade. To put it simply, while they are moving, their body weight is being supported by the digits (toes) rather than the entire foot structure. In contrast, humans and bears are plantigrade, meaning the body weight while in moition is being supported by the entire sole of the foot. This characteristic is evident in the tracks left behind.

Consistent with all canids, the island fox has five toes on each forefoot. Toe one, the dew claw, is greatly reduced and located above the carpal pad on the inner leg. Only four toes typically appear in a track. The metacarpal pads, or palm,are fused together to form a larger rounded, yet triangular pad. The space between the toes and the pad, known as the negative space, forms an “H”.

The hind feet have four toes, and like the front, the pads are fused to form a narrow heel pad, which only partially registers in a track.  The negative space forms an “X”.
 
Island fox tracks are small, mostly symmetrical, approximately 1 to an 1 1/4 inches long by 13/16 of an inch wide, with the front track larger than the hind. The two inner toes tend to be close together and are often angled inward towards each other. Often the fur surrounding the foot will leave a visible impression in the track as well. The claws of the island fox are semi-retractable and slightly curved, and may not register. Even in mud, the claws appear very fine if at all. 

 
Island foxes generally move throughout their territory in a slight under-step trot. Having the shortest leg-to-body ratio of all the wild canines, the resulting track pattern is such that the front toes are visible ahead of a complete hind track.

While hiking the Channel Islands, take time to look closely on the side of the trail where you’ll likely encounter the tracks of the island fox, as well as other island inhabitants.  Quietly observe the entire area; look around for other pieces of evidence and you may be able to determine what the animal was doing.  Give pause, and for that moment, walk with the Island Fox. - Mike Watling