Rescuing Island Fox Data for the Future

When island foxes were dying on Santa Catalina Island in 1998, their bodies were sent to Dr. Linda Munsen at the University of California at Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine for evaluation. Dr. Munsen was the first to uncover canine distemper virus as the cause of island fox deaths across the island.

When island fox bodies were found on the northern islands with distinctive puncture wounds. This physical evidence of golden eagle predation was kept for future reference at UC Davis. The individual island foxes that fell prey to golden eagles also provide a genetic snapshot of a population before it plummeted toward extinction.

Checking fox ear canal during health check

From chronicling the rise of cancer in Santa Catalina Island foxes to documenting the threats from parasites and rodenticides, the island fox specimens collected at UC Davis provide data on generations of island foxes and represent generations of work done by researchers uncovering health threats to this rare California species. 

Island fox blood samples

Jump to 2026 and we have a historically valuable collection of island fox biological specimens. Unfortunately, after the retirement of pathologist Dr. Leslie Woods and the untimely death last year of Dr. Munsen's protégé, researcher Dr. Patty Gaffney, this record of island fox health no longer has a home.  

 

Coming together, the island land managers and island fox research community are acting quickly to save this valuable biological resource. Friends of the Island Fox and the Santa Barbara Zoo have summited grant applications to help pay for the transportation of frozen island fox samples to a new location and a -80 freezer to hold the specimens. Land managers are searching through stretched budgets for any available funds. Grants are still pending, but we have to move the specimens NOW.

It is a $20,000 initial endeavor to secure these specimens for future generations of researchers.

Stay tuned for updates. 

Fox Foto Friday - Creating a Living Library

 What's in these vials?

 

courtesy L. Brenner, TNC

Island fox blood samples going back decades. 

During annual health check-ups, samples are taken of island fox blood. Blood samples can be used to screen for increased antibodies to a specific virus, to check for toxins, or to provide genetic information.

 

 

These island fox blood samples from Santa Cruz Island are currently being archived and prepared for long-term cryogenic storage at the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) at the University of New Mexico. 

For years, island fox samples have been housed in freezers spread across counties and agencies. While a collection of samples are stored at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, samples from different islands have been stashed in a variety of locations with ever-changing safety measures or lack there of. The value of these specimens to science is degraded if they experience unreliable freezing, are not accessible, or are misplaced.

In 2023, FIF worked with the Dept. of Defense and the U.S. Navy to move some specimens from San Nicolas Island foxes to the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB), one of the largest and most advanced centers for archiving mammal specimens.

 

At the end of 2024, FIF assisted The Nature Conservancy with sending historic island fox blood samples from Santa Cruz Island to the MSB. The last group arrived in New Mexico March 26, 2025.

FIF's goal is to have scientific samples from all six islands archived, protected, and available to future researchers. 

 

Island foxes on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands have been through a historic genetic bottleneck; one that most geneticists considered impossible to recover from. Yet today, island foxes persevere. Island foxes can teach us about evolution, adaptation, and species sustainability. The information in this living library will provide future researchers with access to crucial data.

Donations to FIF help support important island fox research 

Apply for FIF's 2025 Research Grant 

Genetic research currently supported by Friends of the Island Fox:

• Transcriptomics in RNA and island fox health
• Comparing the genetics of the small founding populations on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands with today's island fox populations

FIF Research Grant Application 2024

Friends of the Island Fox is currently taking applications 

through June 30 for the 

FIF 2024 Research Grant

Download Application

From the complex relationship between island foxes and island spotted skunks, to diet, microbiome impacts on health, and changing territory sizes, research projects are revealing the complexities of the Channel Island ecosystem and the role of island foxes in island ecology.

In 2024, Friends of the Island Fox is offering up to $7,000 in support to research projects benefiting greater understanding of the island fox and the Channel Island ecosystem.

 

Last year's grant recipients are using wildlife cameras to quantify island spotted skunk populations and investigating the impact of individual island fox behavior on the island ecosystem.

It's Science, for Fox Sake! And we encourage all applicants to apply.

 

2023 grant recipient, D. Thomaier

Past Research Grant Recipients and Projects

Grant Recipients are asked to provide public updates on their work - "Date with a Fox" programs, hear from the researchers

Published science on island foxes and island spotted skunks

 

 

Your Donations Help Fund this Important Science!

FIF 2023 Research Grant to Investigate Individual Island Fox Impact

FIF awarded a second Research Grant in 2023 to Juliann Schamel, NPS biologist and graduate student in Ecology and Conservation at University of Aberdeen, Scotland...

Juliann Schamel in the field with island fox

 

and Dr. Alexandria DeCandia, biology professor at Georgetown University...

Dr. Alexandria DeCandia

 

for their project: From Microbes to Habitats: How Individual Fox Foraging Behavior Cascades Through an Ecosystem.

Schamel and De Candia are combining their respective work in stable isotope diet analysis and microbiome research to investigate the specific interconnections between 15 male island foxes and the island ecosystem. The team says, "Recent research has revealed that the island fox displays a high level of individual specialization, from their diet, to activity patterns, to the germination rate of scat-dispersed native seeds." This work builds on stable isotope diet analysis that Schamel presented at the Channel Island Symposium that demonstrated that diet specialization is occurring on Santa Rosa Island. 

GPS radio collar deployed on Santa Rosa Island

The 15 island foxes to be studied were part of a territory range investigation monitoring island fox movement with GPS radio collars by FIF 2021 Research Grant recipient Katie Elder. The final collection of data occurred in December 2023 when the island foxes were recaptured and their GPS collars removed.

Combining specific daily movement data (over the course of a year) with stable isotope diet data from individual whisker samples and microbiome swabs of gut microfloral offers a unique window into the lives of these individual island foxes. 

Microbiome sample swabs

 

It's easy to assume that island foxes, as a species, have a specifically defined relationship with plants and animals in the island ecosystem. However, Schamel's island fox dietary data has revealed a great deal of individualism in dietary choice, especially when resources are abundant. Some island foxes are eating beach foods, some are fruit specialists, others prey predominantly on deer mice.

Island fox whisker sample being collected

 

This investigation will try to reveal "a more holistic understanding of island foxes," DeCandia says. "[H]ost-associated microbes are critical to ... digestion and immunity,... By linking gut microbial communities with individual diet, movement, and activity patterns, we can begin to untangle the eco-evolutionary factors shaping these island hosts, their microbes, and the ecosystem in which they live."

Comparing microbiome of island fox and island spotted skunk, A. DeCandia

 

Friends of the Island Fox is proud to invest in this cutting-edge, multidisciplinary scientific investigation that brings together academic and governmental organizations and investigators. Whisker samples will be processed and analyzed by Julianne Schamel and Seth Newsome at the Center for Stable Isotopes at the University of New Mexico. DNA from microbiome swabs will be extracted by Alexandria DeCandia at the Center for Conservation Genomics at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Undergraduate researchers at Georgetown University, University of New Mexico, and California State University Channel Islands will actively participate in sample collection, laboratory preparation, data analysis and interpretation, and co-authorship of findings. 

Your donations help grow scientific knowledge and the next generation of scientists! 

Applications for FIF's 2024 Research Grant 

will be available March 22

 

Friends of the Island Fox will be at the 

P-22 Day Festival 

Sunday October 22 at Griffith Park

Come by our booth and see if you can detect what island foxes have been eating.

 

We'll also be unveiling our new Island Fox Science shirt -

It's Science, for Fox Sake!

- to raise funds for island fox scientific research. 

Come out to celebrate the life of mountain lion P-22 and support California wildlife at the P-22 Day Festival.

Island Foxes on the Cover of Molecular Ecology

Fox Foto Friday - Island foxes make the cover of another scientific journal!

 

Friends of the Island Fox congratulates Jasmine Lu on the publication of her paper–"Ear mite infection restructures otic microbial networks in conservation–reliant Santa Catalina Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis catalinae)"–in Molecular Ecology. 

Working with Dr. Alexandra DeCandia, Lu investigated the connections between bacteria communities and ear mite infection to understand why island foxes on Catalina became so vulnerable to cancerous tumors in their ear canals.

When there's biodiversity in an island fox's microbiome, good bacteria can work together to keep harmful bacteria in check. When there is a lack of diversity, opportunistic pathogens, like Staphylococcus pseudintermedius can become the dominant bacteria in a fox's ear. In combination, ear mite infestation and S. pseudintermedius promote chronic inflammation. More on bacterial imbalance in island fox ear canal

Compounding the probability for serious disease, two strains of Staph bacteria appeared to cooperate in forming a "multistrain biofilm." As the bacterial community deteriorated, other carcinogenesis-promoting microbes rose in prevalence and assumed a keystone role in the microbiome. 

A video of Jasmine Lu discussing her work on "Date with a Fox" will be available soon.

Read the scientific paper

Why does the occurrence of ear mites in Catalina Island foxes initiate this bacterial imbalance? Other island foxes encounter ear mites, but a similar imbalance does not occur.

Those smudgy swabs collected from island fox ears during health checks continue to provide data to compare microbiomes between island foxes. 

Your donations helped to fund this important research for island foxes and the furtherance of scientific understanding of the potential role of bacteria in some cancers.

Island Fox Microbiome at the Smithsonian!

FIF's 2020 Research Grant recipient Dr. Alexandra DeCandia recently spoke about her work investigating the island fox microbiome. 

Watch the video of the program

Here's a behind the scenes look at her process extracting the DNA of different microbes from the island fox swab samples.

Dr. Allie reports: 

I inventoried over 800 swabs and over 300 blood samples collected from Channel Island foxes and island spotted skunks in 2020. I then extracted DNA and prepared samples for microbiome sequencing (a process called "library preparation"). The last step of the library preparation is cleaning the library–in essence, removing all of the DNA fragments that I don't want to ultimately sequence.

Although it may seem like a straightforward process, this took a bit of troubleshooting. After a few failed attempts, I worked with the lab manager at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Center for Conservation Genomics to learn how to run an "eGel". In this approach, you put your library in an agarose gel (which looks like a think rectangle of gelatin), run an electrical current through the gel to separate DNA fragments based on size...

(under UV light, the fragments look like glowing bands of the gel), and then pull out the band you want to sequence (in my case, fragments roughly 400 base pairs in length).

Then the DNA had to be treated to remove "gel particles and other potential contaminants."

Overall, this was a nerve-wracking process, but thankfully it worked!

Dr. Allie has submitted all seven sequencing libraries to the Princeton University Genomics Core Facility for sequencing. She reported on some preliminary findings during her "Date with a Fox" presentation. This is Fox Science at work! 

Your donations support this cutting-edge science that will provide important information regarding island fox health.  

Swab collection continues.

What is a microbiome? and Why is this important for island foxes?

Fox Foto Friday - This Is Island Fox Science

Fresh from the fox swabs...This past week, Friends of the Island Fox had the opportunity to spend some time in the field with the biologists of the Catalina Island Conservancy during their final days this season counting and providing island foxes with health checks.

During health checks, samples, like the one shown above, were taken. (how are island foxes swabbed?)

Soon these swabs will be boxed up and sent across the country to enrich the data set of Dr. Alexandra De Candia. During FIF's first virtual "Date with a Fox," Dr. Allie shared her work on the island fox microbiome and its importance for fox health and immunity.

Dr. Allie explains that Catalina Island biologists "have been collecting swabs since 2017, so we are building a really nice longitudinal dataset. 2020–2021 samples will help that dataset grow. This will allow us to look at changes in fox microbiomes through time and (once we have enough repeat individuals sampled) see how treatment or past history of mite infection alters microbiomes in the short- and long-term."

If you missed the virtual event you can watch the video here.

More on the connection between microbiome and fox health on Catalina Island.

Not only were the CIC biologists taking these samples to enrich the microbiome data set, they were also putting radio collars, funded by you, on island foxes.

FIF Research Grant to Investigate Island Fox Territory Size

Friends of the Island Fox is happy to announce Kathleen "Katie" Elder is the recipient of the FIF 2021 Island Fox Research Grant. 

island fox with GPS collar

In conjunction with the Biological Sciences Department of California Polytechnic University (CA Poly), San Luis Obispo, and Channel Islands National Park, Elder will be investigating territory size for individual male island foxes on Santa Rosa Island. This project will replicate and expand on a Santa Rosa study done in 2009–2010 using specially adapted GPS radio-tracking collars. Twelve years ago, Santa Rosa Island foxes were just starting to recover, with an estimated population size of 389 individuals. The GPS-collared male island foxes were calculated to have a territory size on Santa Rosa of 3.39 square kilometers (Drake et al. 2015).

Two island fox populations, which have not encountered recent population declines–San Nicolas and San Clemente Islands–have been found to have vastly different territorial sizes: 

• San Nicolas Island (2005–2006) 1.81 square kilometers (Powers 2009)
• San Clemente (2010–2011) .42 square kilometers (Sanchez 2012)
  

In the fall of 2020, Santa Rosa Island was home to an estimated 2,657 island foxes. As the population has recovered fully, have territory sizes decreased? 

island fox on Santa Rosa Island, courtesy Tim Bean

Elder will be investigating whether the density of the island fox population impacts territory size and/or the extent of fox territory overlap. She'll also be looking at whether habitat quality is a factor in territory size or territory use during different parts of the day. Are there some habitat areas, like beaches, that are included in the territory of multiple foxes? How do these territorial animals manage areas of overlap? Do they access overlapping areas at different times of the day? Are individuals with inland territories venturing to beaches occasionally? Beach areas provide supplemental food resources, but also may be primary zones for contact with introduced species and disease vectors.

Understanding territory size, overlap, and use, impacts island fox management. Territory-size data plays a role in the algorithms for calculating overall island population estimates. If the data on territory size is outdated, population estimates could be over- or understated. If specific habitats or areas are more important to island fox success, identifying those areas will help secure targeted protections. Identifying areas where island foxes are more likely to encounter threats, may also help us find ways to reduce those negative impacts.

If you are an FIF donor, 

you are making this important work possible.

 

If you haven't donated yet, Please Donate 

It's Science, For Fox Sake!

  

More about FIF funded Research 

References:

Drake, E.M., B.L. Cypher, K. Ralls, J. D. Perrine, R. White, and T. J. Coonan.  2015. The Southwestern Naturalist. 60:247-255

 Sanchez, J. N. 2012. Spatial ecology of disease spread in the island fox. M.S. thesis, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California.

Fox Foto Friday - Island Fox Science in Progress

What are these? Look closely. These are swabs from island fox ears and backsides being processed in the lab at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C.

This is island fox science in progress! FIF 2020 Research Grant recipient Dr. Allie DeCandia updated us on her work investigating the microbiome of island foxes.

"Between July and December 2020, collaborators across all six Channel Islands collected ear canal swabs, anal swabs, and blood samples from 50–60 foxes per subspecies. After collection in the field, these samples were shipped to Princeton University for temporary storage until all samples arrived on the east coast." In March, DeCandia moved the samples to her lab at the Smithsonian. She spent April and May inventorying samples.

"My collaborators did a fantastic job sampling foxes!" DeCandia says. "In total, I inventoried 851 swabs over the course of 23 hyper-focused laboratory hours (which were thankfully not consecutive)."

Processing the samples must be meticulous because she is investigating DNA.

"I sterilized scissors (bleach dunk / water dunk / superheat in a Bacinerator), snipped off the swab tip, placed the swab tip in a sterile microcentrifuge tube, recorded metadata written on the original swab container, and repeated the process for each swab collected."

The coordinating 300+ blood samples are now being inventoried and the individual island fox DNA extracted. DeCandia will spend the summer extracting microbial DNA from the swabs and preparing samples for "microbiome sequencing." Over the fall/winter, she'll be deep in analyzing the data.

"I am ecstatic to be working with so many amazing researchers in the field and in the lab," DeCandia says, "and can't wait to analyze this impressive dataset in the months ahead!"

FIF grant funds are processing the DNA extraction. 

Your donations support this cutting edge research.

If an island fox is an environment for microbes, what was lost when island fox populations declined to just a few individuals? How is an entire species' health impacted if they recover from near extinction, but have lost some of the microbial biodiversity that protected them from bacteria infection or supported healthy digestion? 

Island fox microbiome investigation will help us understand island fox health and may have implications for other endangered species.

Your donations supporting research are an investment in the island fox's long-term survival.

Friends of the Island Fox is taking applications

through August 31 for our 

2021 Research Grant  (see application)