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

Support for Channel Island Fox Conservation

Carpenteria Family School Island Fox Ambassadors

The successful recovery of  Channel Island foxes from near extinction has been supported by the efforts of a broad range of people. 

When we open the mail and find a letter like this, we take heart that island foxes and the natural world have a future.

It just takes determination and action to become an Island Fox Ambassador.

• Island Fox Ambassador schools
• El Segundo Ladies Golf Club
• Fort Collins, CO Foxes Baseball Club
• Fresno Chaffee Zoo conservation grant 

Every effort helps to support healthy populations of Channel Island foxes. How will you help in 2016?

Double Action to Save Catalina Island Foxes

Help Friends of the Island Fox reduce a major threat to the Santa Catalina Island fox (Urocyon littoralis catalinae): human trash. 

Yes, eating human food is bad for island foxes. Adults dependent on human food fail to teach hunting skills to their offspring. (Island fox diet) However, the greater threat is the attraction of trash and the behavior island foxes engage in to reach readily available human food waste.

The first problem is that standard trash and recycling containers pose a threat to these small foxes. This old trash can, next to a fence, allows an island fox to easily climb inside. The fox's diminutive size means it can easily fit through openings and fall into trash receptacles. 

Aging bins are an enticing hazard.

photo courtesy of Lesly Lieberman and CIC

Once inside, island foxes have a difficult time getting out of these containers. Trash can lids are designed to push open from the outside. Catalina Island biologists have documented numerous cases of island foxes dying inside trash cans.

 

photo courtesy of Julie King, CIC

The second issue is that accessible trash cans encourage island foxes to cross roads and enter dangerous areas. Notice the island fox under the left side of the trash can pictured here. It is pulling trash out of the rusted bottom of this can. 

Catalina Island Conservancy biologists Julie King and Calvin Duncan report: 

Between April and May 2014, four foxes were hit and killed by vehicles in close proximity to open trash cans near Bird Park in Avalon and two more were hit and killed there in November. It is unknown how many other foxes may have been hit by vehicles in the area but did not immediately succumb to their injuries, and were therefore not accounted for.

courtesy of Julie King, CIC

Car strike has become the greatest killer of island foxes on Catalina Island. The island fox pictured to the right was killed by a car, notice the trash can on the other side of the road (to the left). Clusters of unnecessary island fox deaths are occurring in areas adjacent to public spaces with numerous trash cans.

New "Fox Saver" trash bins

But there is a solution to the double threat: trash bins that island foxes can not access.

“Fox Saver” bins are the same sturdy containers used at Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks to keep bears out of human trash. Opening the bin requires long human fingers. There is no opening for an island fox to easily enter.

Once the attraction of available human food waste is eliminated, we hope there will be less motivation for island foxes to cross roads, and maybe less attraction to venture into Avalon.

Purchasing these all-steel bins, shipping them to Santa Catalina Island, and installing them on a cement pad comes with a sizable price tag. Each bin costs $2,000. The Catalina Island Conservancy has a goal of replacing 150 trash bins across the island.

Friends of the Island Fox aims to raise $6,000 to fund three “Fox-Saver” bins to be placed in Avalon's Bird Park area. This should actively reduce island fox deaths along one of Santa Catalina's busiest roads. Your donation will help meet this goal and save island fox lives.

The Catalina Island fox is making a strong recovery, but its current restored population combined with growing human activity  has increased direct human threats to island fox survival. 

Help us make a positive impact by funding 
"Fox Saver" bins!

Coastal Clean-up Day 2013 and the Island Fox

Help make a difference for local wildlife, including the Channel Island fox.

Friends of the Island Fox and the Channel Island Park Foundation invite you to join us for:

Coastal Clean-up Day 2013

at

Ventura Harbor Cove Beach

Saturday, Sept. 21

9am-12pm

Trash in our local waterways and ocean can be life threatening to wildlife. One of our friends took this photo of a female sea lion on the Channel Islands. If you look at the female laying along the bottom of the photo, you can see some kind of man-made debris wrapped around the animal’s neck and cutting into her flesh. 

Island foxes searching for food at the water’s edge can also be injured by items that wash up on beaches. Find out about the island fox and the fishing lure

What might seem like benign trash can be dangerous to small animals. Last year a young island fox got its head caught in a small potato chip bag. In its panic to remove the bag, the island fox ended up in the surf and drown.

Some trash can even look like natural items on the beach. See items we found on the beach in June on Santa Cruz Island. 

Help Clean-up the Beach and keep wildlife and people safe.

Volunteers can register the morning of Coastal Clean-up Day at either the Channel Island National Park Visitor Center or the east end of Spinnaker Drive (Surfer’s Knoll).

If possible, please bring your own buckets and gloves.  Participants will be given data cards to record the trash they pick up. (Minors must have a parent sign a waiver for them to participate.) 

For more information see the Channel Islands Park Foundation website at http://www.ciparkfoundation.org/ 

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.