Give the Gift of Saving Island Foxes

Since 2005, you have helped Friends of the Island Fox fund more than $60,000 in conservation efforts to save the endangered island fox.

In 2014 donors funded our  

113th radio-tracking collar!

In addition, in 2014 FIF:

• Hosted the annual meeting of island fox biologists
• Funded blood tests looking for exposure to disease (serology)
• Supported the purchase of a scientific specimen refrigerator at a lab studying island fox health
• Funded vaccinations for rabies
• And funded identification microchips 

 

In the year 2000, four subspecies of island fox were facing imminent extinction. San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands each only had 15 surviving individual island foxes. On all six islands combined there was a total of approximately 1,400 island foxes. 

In just fourteen years, island fox populations have returned to historic levels. The official population numbers from 2013 estimate over 5,700 island foxes across all of the islands.

Maintaining this successful recovery of the island fox means continued monitoring. Disease and introduced threats can quickly impact these rare island populations.

This holiday season give the gift of directly saving an endangered species.

• $10 microchips an island fox with lifetime identification
• $10 vaccinates an island fox for a year against rabies or distemper
• $25 funds an annual health check
• $100 supports public education and vital research
• $300 sponsors a radio-tracking collar to ensure the safety of island foxes

Donate through the "Island Fox Donation" box on the upper right hand side of the screen (the box with the smiling island fox).

Radio Collars Protect Island Foxes

courtesy of Kevin Schafer

Island foxes are making a strong recovery across the Channel Islands, but the need to monitor their populations continues.
 
This past year, in 2013, three radio-collared island foxes were killed by golden eagle predation. Two foxes were killed by a golden eagle on San Miguel Island and one on Santa Cruz Island. Biologists do not know if the island foxes were killed by the same golden eagle or by two different golden eagles. The distance between the islands can be easily managed by a single large eagle. However, in the past, golden eagles have often preyed on island foxes in a specific area when they have been successful.

As the populations of island foxes have increased, the cost of radio-collaring all adults has become prohibitive. Radio-tracking collars now cost $300 each. A representative number of island foxes are radio-collared on each island–approximately 5% to 11% of individual island foxes on each of the northern islands. 

golden eagle at Denali Nat'l Park, courtesy of NPS

For each radio-collared island fox killed by a golden eagle, there is the possibility of several non-collared foxes being impacted as well. Island foxes are well camouflaged for their habitat. When an island fox without a radio collar is killed by a golden eagle it is difficult to know the incident happened, little alone to find the fox's remains. 

Because radio-tracking collars give off a specific signal when a fox is no longer living, radio collars are vital tools for locating individual island foxes and responding quickly to determine why that animal has died. Island Fox CSI

On Santa Catalina Island this past year biologists were on the look out for stowaway raccoons carrying disease. But in 2013 they encountered a new invader–a northern opossum that hitchhiked on a private boat and made its way onto the island. Introduced animals pose a serious disease threat to island foxes. Canine distemper 

Radio-tracking collars are the island foxes' best defense against unexpected threats. To-date Friends of the Island Fox supporters have funded 96 radio collars. 

The Foxy Ladies of El Segundo Ladies Golf Club

$300 Helps protect island foxes. Who has funded radio-tracking collars? 

• Classes of school children
• Zoo keepers
• Zoo docents from across the country
• A Baseball team
• People giving a radio collar sponsorship in honor of someone special
• And Private individuals Like You

Join with other people to help fund radio collars for island foxes. 

A MicroChip Tells the Story of a Special Island Fox

Burnie Boots in 2008; courtesy CIC

This island fox was born in 2006 and captured as a juvenile her first autumn. She was only six months old when she received her first health check and an identification microchip. A tiny passive electronic identification tag was placed under her skin, between her shoulders. For the rest of her life, biologists would be able to identify her as an individual.

In May of 2007, a human-ignited fire swept over a large swath of Catalina Island. It just happened that our little female island fox had been living in the area that went up in flames. She was the only island fox found severely injured in the 2007 fire. Her fur was singed and her feet were badly burned. The injury to her feet led to the name: “Burnie Boots.” 

Burnie Boots with injuries from the 2007 fire, CIC

In the days immediately following the fire the fox had become dehydrated and malnourished because of her injuries. Over the course of several weeks she was nursed back to health at the Catalina Island Conservancy Foxpital.

Before her release back into the wild, Burnie Boots was fitted with a radio collar funded through Friends of the Island Fox and our first Fox Ambassador School–the girls of Westridge School in Pasadena. The radio collar enabled biologists to follow the little female fox’s movements in the wild and in the fall she was recaptured and found to be fully recovered.

In 2008, at age two and a half, Burnie was captured in the fall island-fox count. Her microchip identified her even though she had few physical signs of her earlier injuries. During her health check biologists recorded that she showed signs of having nursed pups. Conservation efforts had made a difference! Burnie Boots survived because of health treatment. She was tracked with a radio collar and now had successfully helped to increase the population of endangered island foxes on Catalina.

Burnie Boots lived a completely wild life for the next year. When she was recaptured in the fall of 2009, she was in good health and weighed 4.6 lbs. The battery on her radio collar was low and she was doing well. The radio collar was removed.

For the next three seasons, Burnie Boots avoided the fall capture, but she continued to be part of the growing island fox population on Catalina Island.

Then, unexpectedly in June of 2013, the body of a female fox was found by the side of the road near Canyon Lodge in Avalon. The microchip reader quickly read the animal’s microchip and identified her as Burnie Boots. Her injuries suggested that she had been hit by a car. Watch for Foxes signs

At seven years of age, Burnie Boots’ individual story has come to an end. But because of her microchip we know she spent all of her life in a fairly small territory in a canyon behind the town of Avalon. Even after the fire, she stayed in that territory and raised pups in the area. Though she was an aging female, there was evidence Burnie had nursed a litter of pups this year. So while her individual story has ended, Burnie lives on in the DNA she has passed on to several litters of pups. This fall maybe her pups will receive ID microchips and start stories of their own.

Microchips help biologists to better understand island fox behavior. You can play a vital role in helping to save endangered island foxes. 

Help FIF microchip 500 wild island foxes this September
Just $10 microchips an island fox for life. 

Please Donate in the upper right.

Give a Unique Holiday Gift - Saving an Island Fox

photo courtesy of Kevin Schafer

You can give the gift of saving an endangered species. Donations to Friends of the Island Fox go directly to conservation efforts in the field to continue the successful recovery of island foxes.

The island fox pictured on the ground is wearing a radio tracking collar.  To date members of the community like you have funded 56 radio tracking collars that allow field biologists to track island fox activity and respond quickly when an individual island fox dies. Early response enables scientists to determine the cause of death: golden eagle attack, disease, car strike or something unexpected. The faster biologists can respond to a specific threat, the quicker appropriate action can be taken to protect living island foxes.

Helping island foxes can take many forms:

• $250 funds a radio tracking collar on an individual island fox for one year
• $120 puts a “Watch for Foxes” sign along an area of road where foxes are being hit by cars. This is currently the number one cause of island fox fatality on Santa Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands. (Five signs are currently needed on Santa Catalina.)
• $50 provides the necessary testing of a blood sample to determine whether young island foxes are developing immunity to naturally occurring diseases
• $10 vaccinates an island fox against its two greatest threats - rabies and distemper.
• $10 provides for an identification microchip for an individual island fox

General donations to Friends of the Island Fox support our education efforts in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. (Island Fox Ambassador Schools, Island Fox in the Classroom, Community Fox Talk Programs) Long-term population recovery demands that local citizens understand the threats to island foxes and the important role foxes and people play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem on the islands. You can play an active role in the continued success of saving the island fox by donating today.