Island Foxes on KLOS FM Radio

Hear Friends of the Island Fox on

Cynthia Fox's "Spotlight on the Community" 

on KLOS Radio, 95.5 FM!

Pat Meyer, Friends of the Island Fox Program Director, and Keri Dearborn, Education Director, will be on Cynthia Fox's Sunday morning program this weekend, May 28th from 6-7 AM. 

Link to KLOS "Spotlight on the Community PodCasts".

With community education and participation in conservation efforts we are saving the island fox.

For more information on school programs (K-college) contact Pat at pat@islandfox.org or (805) 228-4123. To be added to the FIF teacher contact list for program information in the fall - email: islandfoxnews@gmail.com (subject line: teacher)


Photos of island foxes
Video of island foxes
Video - island fox meets bald eagle
Fox Talk Podcasts

Island Fox Ambassadors - Canalino Elementary School

Pat Meyer and Canalino Elementary 4th grade students

What can you do with popcorn and hot chocolate?  Help save the endangered island fox!


Fourth grade students at Canalino Elementary School in Carpinteria, California have become Island Fox Ambassadors. They made posters to increase awareness about the endangered island fox and they raised funds by selling popcorn and hot chocolate at a school movie night.

The fourth grade students learned about the island fox through their teachers and a presentation by Friends of the Island Fox educators. (For information on Island Fox classroom programs call 805 228-4123 or e-mail admin@islandfox.org).

Working together the Canalino students raised a large enough donation to support a radio tracking collar for an island fox. Radio tracking collars are vital to monitoring island fox welfare across the Channel Islands. More on GPS collars.

The “Canalino collar” marks radio collar #65 supported by generous donations to Friends of the Island Fox. Part of the island fox’s rapid recovery from the brink of extinction is due to the partnership between scientists, conservationists and the public.

Friends of the Island Fox proudly adds the fourth grade students of Canalino Elementary School to our list of Island Fox Ambassadors.

The island fox is a California treasure and it needs devoted conservation ambassadors like these students to safeguard its survival into the future.

You can make a positive difference too, by supporting island fox conservation through the donation button at the top of the page.

To learn more about island foxes

Follow the adventures of Tani, an island fox on Twitter @ ifoxtweet, see box to the right, or Find us on Facebook. May 24th will mark a landmark day for this island fox pup. You won’t want to miss it!

The Island Fox and the IUCN

photo courtesy of Kevin Schafer

The island fox has an important friend – the IUCN.

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) was established in England in 1948 to promote scientifically based conservation efforts on behalf of wild species. The IUCN has a Red List of species around the world that are threatened and specific categories for their survival status: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, or Least Concern.

The IUCN has joined with an established fox friend ARKive.org to highlight “Amazing Species” on the IUCN’s Red List website. See more island fox images on ARKive.org.

Recently the island fox was featured as one of these “Amazing Species” - IUCN RedList Amazing Species. The downloadable pdf on the island fox features a photo by another island fox friend, wildlife photographer Kevin Schafer (kevinschafer.com)

island fox photos by Kevin Schafer:

• island foxes investigating wood
• pair of island foxes
• island fox sitting 
  
• island fox with radio collar

The IUCN lists the island fox as critically endangered. Despite increases in population over the last three years, island foxes have a very limited range and are extremely vulnerable to habitat destruction or introduced disease.

Island species in general are highly vulnerable to extinction because they have limited natural populations and home ranges. Typically island species can not relocate in the face of environmental change. Climate change poses specific threats to island species: rising water levels, changes in temperature and rainfall, fire as a result of drought (fire on Catalina Island), heightened disease threats from insect- or virus-borne pathogens.

How can you help the island fox and other endangered species? Pass on information about these creatures and remind people that saving resources and reducing our carbon footprint helps everyone. 

Raccoon Spotted on Catalina

The Catalina Island Conservancy reports that a raccoon was spotted in the Two Harbors Campground on Catalina Island. Despite a rapid response setting up capture cages, the raccoon has not been apprehended. This raccoon poses a serious threat to island foxes and other endemic island species.

Raccoons are not native to the California Channel Islands and they are now believed to have been the source of the distemper virus that killed over 88% of the Catalina Island foxes between 1998 and 2000.
More on the threat posed by raccoons.

For information on what to do if you see a raccoon on a boat: Raccoon Awareness Flyer. 


If you should see the raccoon on Catalina Island please contact the Catalina Island Conservancy. For the safety of the island fox and other island species it is imperative that this raccoon is apprehended as soon as possible.

Bald Eagles and Island Foxes

Tani is learning about the bald eagles on the Channel Islands and you can too. 

photo courtesy of Peter Sharp, IWS

Bald eagles went extinct on the Channel Islands following the use of DDT in Southern California. While this chemical insecticide successfully killed insects around homes and on agricultural crops, it stayed in the environment. The chemical ingredients of DDT take many years to disappear or degrade. They were washed from fields and cities into streams, rivers and eventually the ocean. 


When small animals ate the chemicals, they were in turn eaten by larger animals. Seafloor worms were eaten by fish, and the fish were eaten by the bald eagle and the brown pelican. The chemicals accumulated in top predators like theses large birds. The DDT didn't kill the eagles directly, it caused them to be unable to lay eggs with hard shells. When the mother eagle sat on her eggs they cracked. No eaglets were born and the bald eagles disappeared completely from the Channel Islands.


Today DDT is no longer legally used in the United States. Part of the effort to return the Channel Islands to their natural state was to relocate young bald eagles to Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands. These reintroduced bald eagles have grown-up. They are doing well and reproducing.

You can watch the bald eagles live as they raise their chicks through the on-line EAGLECAM

As of May 1, 2011 the chicks are small gray fluffs in the nest.  They are growing up just as the island fox pups are growing up.

Watch a video from the EAGLECAM where an island fox visits the bald eagle nest.


Follow Tani's adventures as an island fox grows up on Twitter or Facebook.

Follow An Island Fox on TWITTER

Friends of the Island Fox announces the birth of Tani, a special island fox pup on Santa Cruz Island. More on Santa Cruz Island.

This island fox pup will have a voice through Friends of the Island Fox. You'll be able to follow Tani's adventures on Twitter at @ifoxtweet. See the Twitter box in the right hand column below the island fox picture or follow on the Friends of the Island Fox FaceBook page.  

Over the next year this island fox will tweet her experiences as she grows up and explores her island home.


Today Tani and her brother and sister were born in a hillside den. They are each about the size of two AA batteries. Sleep and food are their primary interests and their world revolves around their mother.


Follow @ifoxtweet on Twitter as an island fox grows up.

Spring Is the Time for Island Fox Pups

Spring is blooming across the Channel Islands. The mountain morning glory unfurls its white flowers tinged in pink.

In protective dens across the islands, female island foxes are giving birth to their litters of pups. The green hillsides with their flowers hint that the rainfall has been good this year. If the plants are healthy they will produce abundant fruit this summer. The Catalina cherry, toyon and prickly pear cactus are all important food sources for the island fox. Island fox food. If the plants grow well, the animals that depend on them will do well too.

Last year the drought impacted island foxes. Fewer pups were born and many were underweight. This year we are hoping for healthy island fox pups. Typically island foxes have 2 pups, but if there is abundant food they can have up to 5 pups.

Representatives from Friends of the Island Fox were out on Santa Cruz Island last week. More on Santa Cruz Island. The hillsides were green and the Catalina cherry trees were covered in blooms. We’re looking for a special island fox pup to be born that will be communicating out to the world about its daily life as it grows up.

This exciting birth is just around the corner. We hope that by sharing the daily adventures of this little island fox via Twitter, people around the world will have a better understanding of the challenges the island fox faces living on an island and being an endangered species. (Link to video - island fox encounters bald eagle chick)

Are you ready to follow an island fox pup as it grows up?

Island Fox Happenings

April is a busy time for island foxes and Friends of the Island Fox. 

Out on the islands female foxes are searching for the perfect den site in between rocks or under vegetation. They are looking for just the right spot because April is the month that many island fox pups are born. (more on island fox pups)  Keep checking back to islandfox.org for a birth announcement mid-April. We're waiting for a special island fox to be born and you'll get to follow along as it grows up via Twitter.


Friends of the Island Fox will also be helping to...

Celebrate California Wildlife 

at the  

Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Garden
Earth Day Expo 

on Saturday and Sunday, April 9th and 10th

from 10 AM - 4 PM

Come by and visit us and the Zoo's live island fox. There will be Fox Talks at the island fox exhibit at 12 PM and 2:30 PM. We will also be doing radio tracking demonstrations throughout the day. 

Road Signs to Save Island Foxes

courtesy of Kevin Pease

Over the Holiday Season important donations came in to fund three “Watch for Foxes” road signs.  In the past few years cars have become the most common cause of death for island foxes. While the northern islands have few cars operated only by National Park and Nature Conservancy officials, Santa Catalina has a number of roads and a variety of people driving on them. The two Navy islands, San Clemente and San Nicolas, also have roads with fast-moving vehicles.

This autumn several island foxes lost their lives on Santa Catalina Island along the road from the airport into Avalon. These “Watch for Foxes” signs will help remind drivers to slow down and be especially vigilant when driving this section of road.

Because of the island fox’s small size, it can be hard to see before it darts onto a road. The fox’s mottled gray coloring with tinges of russet, provide amazing camouflage in island chaparral and grass.  Especially at twilight, even careful drivers can sometimes accidentally strike an island fox crossing the road. While female island foxes usually stay near their parent’s territory, young males may travel great distances looking for territories of their own. These adventuring teenage boys tend to be inexperienced and many have their lives cut short along dangerous roadsides.

Accidents can happen. Drivers on Santa Catalina, San Nicolas and San Clemente are reminded that it is important to report incidents where island foxes are believed to be hit by cars. Injured animals can not be helped if accidents are not reported and the body of an animal killed by a car may provide important medical information if the carcass is collected in a timely manner.

Hopefully with the new “Watch for Foxes” signs funded by donations to Friends of the Island Fox this Holiday Season, island foxes will be safer along island roads this spring. 

Fox Radio Collars Help Determine Effects of Motorcycle Race

Female island fox wearing her new GPS collar

We often talk about how radio-tracking collars on endangered island foxes provide an important early warning sign of disease or unnatural predators on the Channel Islands. Importance of radio collars

In December, radio tracking collars and special GPS tracking collars provided important information on island fox locations and activity during the Catalina Grand Prix motorcycle event.

Catalina Island Conservancy biologists were able to determine the location of island foxes near the race event, track fox activity during the event and determine that no foxes were directly injured by motorcyclists. At the end of January, the island foxes with GPS collars will be captured again so that detailed information can be downloaded from their GPS collars. These high-tech collars record location data every 75 minutes. By putting these special collars on a group of island foxes before the motorcycle race, movement behavior was documented prior to the race, during the race event and for several weeks following the event.

When the full data is collected and analyzed the biologists will be able to determine if the race changed the animals’ behavior and how long it took for the foxes to return to their normal movement patterns.

This is a great example of how technology can help us make better choices in our interactions with wildlife, especially endangered species like island foxes.