Fox Foto Friday - 250 Radio Collars To Date

Mike Watling, Chair of FIF's Board of Directors, recently took this photo of an island fox wearing a radio-tracking collar just at dusk on Santa Rosa Island. 

Did you help fund this radio collar?

Since 2005, Friends of the Island Fox has been committed to funding radio-tracking collars for island foxes. In 2006, FIF donors funded 10 radio collars for island foxes being released from captive breeding back into the wild. See video of captive-born island foxes being released in 2006.

In 2021, donors like you funded our 250th radio collar. This landmark collar will go on an island fox on Catalina Island this summer. 

Today island foxes live their lives running free in the wild. Individuals with radio collars help alert biologists to threats for the entire island population. Radio collars also monitor specific foxes recovering from health challenges or injury.

Meet two island foxes with radio collars: F257 and Vixen

FIF is committed to raising funds for an additional:

• 15 new radio collars at $350 each
• 19 refurbished radio collars at $220 each

These radio collars and vaccinations are needed for summer 2021. With your help island foxes will continue to thrive in the wild long into the future.

 

Fox Foto Friday - What's That Island Fox Wearing

Yes, it is a new radio-tracking collar! 

Through your generous donations, FIF was able to fund 5 new radio-tracking collars for island foxes on Catalina Island. 

Catalina Island fox receives vaccination during health check

These new collars will be placed on island foxes during this summer/fall annual counting and health checks.

Are you keeping count? We are:

• 7 refurbished collars for Santa Rosa/San Miguel
• 20 refurbished collars for Santa Cruz
• 5 new collars for Catalina

Our goal is to fund 8 more $220 refurbished collars for Santa Rosa/ San Miguel in 2019. 

With your help we can meet this important need.  

Please donate today

Foxes on Santa Cruz Island are Wearing FIF Collars

This island fox was captured and counted this week on Santa Cruz Island. 

She received a health check and her radio-tracking collar was replaced with a newly refurbished collar. Her old collar will come off and be eligible for refurbishing. 

Earlier this year, 20 radio collars from Santa Cruz Island were sent in for refurbishing and funded by FIF.

In just a few minutes this little fox was released back into the wild. Her refurbished radio collar has a battery that will last 2-3 years.

Her microchip enables biologists to identify her as a specific individual. If she is caught again this summer, the microchip reader will quickly identify her so that she can be released immediately without being handled.

Your donation of $220 would recycle her used radio collar to be placed on another island fox.

Fox Foto Friday - Radio Collars Going On Island Foxes

photo courtesy of M. Navarro, CINP

Island foxes on Santa Cruz Island are receiving health checks and being fitted with newly refurbished radio tracking collars RIGHT NOW!

You refurbished these radio collars and today they are going on island foxes.

More Radio Collars for Island Foxes !

This island fox is smiling because it is wearing a newly refurbished radio collar. More about M152

Two things happened this week:

• 7 newly refurbished radio collars arrived at Channel Islands National Park to be deployed on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Island foxes
• FIF funded our 27th radio collar this year!

Twenty refurbished radio collars went to Santa Cruz Island in May to be fitted on island foxes this summer. 

You helped fund these radio collars to monitor island fox health and welfare. 

But we aren't done yet. 

Health checks and annual counting are starting across the islands. This is when old damaged radio collars are removed and replaced with new or refurbished radio collars. 

 

FIF is hoping to fund:

• 5 more $350 new collar
• 13 more $220 refurbished collars 

We know we can do this with YOUR HELP!

The time to radio collar island foxes is right NOW! 

Please DONATE TODAY 

You Can Help Island Foxes with Radio Collars

These island fox radio collars have gone to the shop to be refurbished. They have been chewed on, rubbed on rocks, and used as teething bars by island fox pups. But, with your help these collars can be repaired and used to help island foxes, again.

Radio-tracking collars protect whole islands of island foxes.

Radio-tracking collars can also be used for specific situations:

• helping to reunite a lost pup with its parents
• following an island fox rehabilitating from wildfire injuries
• monitoring an island fox recovering from a serious injury

Which foxes wear radio-tracking collars?
 
Soon the radio collars above will be renewed and ready for the field. Before they can start making a difference, Friends of the Island Fox needs to pay for them. 

Refurbishing these 20 radio collars costs over $4,000

Your donation can help put these radio collars back on a wild island fox. 

Please DONATE TODAY 

to help monitor island foxes all year long.

This Island Fox Pup Needs You!

Across the Channel Islands, winter rains have renewed the native island plants and increased food resources for island foxes. 

2019 should be a good year for island fox pups!

Most island foxes are born in April. For the first several months of their lives, they depend on their mother for milk. Both parents will then bring food to the youngsters back at the den. Pups, generally, emerge in June and over the summer their parents teach them how to hunt and find native fruit. Healthy island fox parents have a head start in raising healthy pups.

You can help keep island foxes healthy and safe. 

This year the need for radio-tracking collars is greater than ever.

On each island 50–60 island foxes wear radio-tracking collars. Each year 30% to 50% of the collars need to be replaced or refurbished.

 

In 2019, Friends of the Island Fox is trying to fund:

• Over 30 refurbished radio collars - $220 each
• And 10 new radio collars - $350 each

island fox is vaccinated during health check

These radio collars will be assigned to island foxes this summer and fall during annual counting and health checks. A radio-tracking collar monitors an island fox's movements and signals to biologists when an island fox has died. Radio-tracking collars provide the first alert that disease, parasites, or unexpected predators have killed an island fox.

The sooner biologists can respond to a new threat, the more island foxes can be protected.

Friends of the Island Fox is also helping to fund important investigations into new health threats facing island foxes:

• Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses
• intestinal parasites that are causing island fox deaths
• diseases introduced to the islands by people, pets, and transported wildlife

photo courtesy of Inge Rose

Foxes need your help with science-based solutions.

• $25 tests a tick sample for 5 diseases
• $50 checks two blood samples
• $100 analyzes diet from 10 whisker samples
• $220 refurbishes a used radio collar
• $350 funds a new radio collar

Island foxes need all of us to help assure the pups of 2019 grow up in a healthy island fox community.

Please DONATE today

Island Fox M152 Gets a Radio Collar!

photo courtesy of CINP / NPS

Meet M152! 

This male island fox just got a radio collar funded by donations to Friends of the Island Fox.

Do you see it? 

It's that bit of black just under his chin and above the biologist's gloved hand.

This radio collar will allow biologists to monitor M152 without interfering with his normal wild life. He can be checked-on from a distance by a technician with an antennae and receiver or even from a small plane flying over the island. 

Refurbished radio collars - headed to island foxes

M152's radio-tracking collar emits a unique radio-signal frequency just for him. 

Hear - Normal radio collar

His collar locates his position and reports that he is moving around normally. If M152 should stop moving for 4-6 hours–not move at all–the radio collar will give off a different signal. Hear - Distress alert from radio collar The rapid beep alerts biologists that something might have happened to him. The radio collar then enables biologists to hone in on the little fox body so they can find out what has happened.

M152's newly refurbished radio collar will provide information on his activity for the next 2-3 years.

Radio-tracking collars are vitally important to monitoring island fox populations across the islands. In 2018, donors like you helped Friends of the Island Fox fund a record 25 radio collars:

• 20 refurbished radio collars - $220 each
• 5 new radio collars - $350 each

On each island approximately 20 radio collars need to be refurbished or purchased new each year. 

In 2019 FIF's GOAL is to refurbish 20-30 radio collars 

and purchase 10 new collars

Won't you help with this vital effort to monitor island foxes! 

You've helped us save island foxes from extinction. 

Please donate to help keep island foxes safe and healthy.

Stay tuned. M152 also got a health check. 

Find out what we learned about him. 

 

Fox Foto Friday - Some GOOD NEWS!

Friends of the Island Fox is thrilled to announce: 

The Fresno Chaffee Zoo Conservation Fund 

has chosen FIF to receive a grant of $3,200 annually

for the next three years 

to help fund island fox conservation!

The Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been a long-time partner in island fox conservation. Since 2006, they have supported a variety of efforts to save island foxes–from radio collars to testing for disease. 2013-2018 5-year grant from FCZ.

This new grant will be emphasizing island fox health.

What Has Arrived at Channel Islands National Park?

 Radio collars!

Five new radio collars

still in the wrapper

and 

Six refurbished radio collars

all rebuilt and ready to go back on island foxes!

...have arrived at Channel Islands National Park. These radio-telemetry collars will be fitted on island foxes in the next few months as biological technicians count island foxes and check their health.

Your donations funded these radio collars!

Look closely, this island fox is wearing a radio collar

Foxes with worn collars will be giving them up for refurbishing or new batteries. You have funded fourteen more of these collars to go from the field to the workshop for refitting. More on Refurbished Radio Collars

Radio collars offer a frontline of defense for monitoring and protecting island foxes.

Recycling Island Fox Radio Collars

What can you do with a radio-tracking collar that looks like this?

Recycle it!

Across the Channel Islands, a select number of island foxes wear radio-tracking collars. See more about sentinel foxes. But radio collars have a limited lifespan. Their batteries last up to 36 months, then they need to be replaced. Refitting batteries, however, isn't like put new batteries in a flashlight. The waterproof and fox-proof casing has to be removed and refurbished in a workshop.

Friends of the Island Fox is happy to announce that our February fundraiser more than met our goal to fund the recycling of radio collars for Channel Islands National Park. 

Thanks to your donations 

FIF is refurbishing all 20 of the radio collars 

that CINP planned to recycle in 2018

"The collars will get new antennas, new casings, new batteries, new bands, and/or any other new parts that may be necessary," says Laura Shaskey, Wildlife Biologist at Channel Islands National Park. "They will be completely rebuilt, however intact components will be re-used. As you can see the previously used collars are in very poor shape, chewed up, and are often missing antenna."

courtesy of K. Schafer

Another important benefit of recycling radio collars is the reusing of established bandwidths of radio frequency. In our high-tech wireless world, more and more radio frequencies are being gobbled up for human devices. Fewer radio frequencies are available for wildlife tracking equipment. Recycling collars and reusing pre-established radio-collar frequencies is a smart use of physical and audio resources.

As Shaskey points out, "Refurbishing collars is an efficient cost-effective method to replace collars, so they are as good as new for monitoring another fox for the next three years."


Because recycling a radio collar costs less, FIF was also able to purchase 5 new radio collars for use in Channel Islands National Park.

25 radio tracking collars that will be placed on island foxes 

this season because of your donations!

"Thanks again for all your support with collar purchases this year! It is a great help!" - Laura Shaskey