Island Fox Pups Grow Up

courtesy of NPS volunteer Inge Rose

During the warm days of summer, island fox pups grow up fast. Through rough and tumble play with their siblings, they learn to stalk and pounce. Small paws pin a sister or brother to the ground. They practice grabbing hold with their sharp little teeth and shaking. All of these behaviors are important skills for hunting.

Stalking and pouncing are the actions used by island foxes to catch island deer mice, birds, lizards and snakes, and even some insects, like grasshoppers. Island fox catches a snake.


Digging with agile, clawed paws enables island foxes to catch Jerusalem crickets and beetles. Insects are probably the first prey that most island fox pups hunt on their own. (See the Twitter adventures of Tani, a young island fox grows up, in the right side panel.)


Both parents help to teach the island fox pups where and how to find the variety of food they will need to survive on the rugged Channel Islands. As summer continues, fruit will ripen on a variety of native plants, bringing new food opportunities to the growing island foxes.

Link to a video of island fox pups on Catalina Island sent to FIF by an island fox friend. Watch for the three pups, just like in Tani's family.

Native Foods Cafe Helps Island Foxes

Thank you Native Foods Cafe !

Today, Tuesday June 12, Native Foods Cafe restaurants in California are donating a percentage of their profits to island fox conservation. It is all part of their effort to give back to the local community and support animal conservation efforts.


If you are looking for a new dining experience at a trend-setting vegan restaurant, try one of the Native Foods Cafes in Westwood, Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Culver City, Palm Desert, Palm Springs or Tustin. You'll have a great time and support efforts to save endangered island foxes. Link to Locations

Island Fox on the Radio

photo courtesy of Paul Bronstein

Pat Meyer and Keri Dearborn from Friends of the Island Fox recently did an interview with KLOS Radio personality Cynthia Fox.

Cynthia Fox hosts "Spotlight on the Community" Sunday mornings on KLOS. Listen in for great mix of rock music and community involvement.


Listen to the podcast of the interview via the links below:
Part 1 - How the Island Fox became an Endangered Species

Part 2 - Where do Island Foxes Live ? and Recovery Efforts
Part 3 - Restoring Natural Balance to CA Channel Islands
Part 4 - Education Outreach Programs for Schools and Community Groups

Each segment is approximately 10 minutes.

Friends of the Island Fox thanks Cynthia Fox and KLOS for shining a Spotlight on the endangered island fox. 

Island Fox and the Jerusalem Cricket

Island fox pups on the Channel Islands are now about 6 weeks old and about to emerge from the family den. Friends of the Island Fox's Twitter fox, Tani, is learning what to eat. Both the mother and father island fox bring food to their pups. Follow Tani's tweets in the black Twitter box on the right.


Island foxes are omnivorous, they eat both plant food and other animals. Insects are fairly easy to find and they are an important part of an island fox's diet. Jerusalem crickets are a favorite food for island foxes. This large insect can be found in the soil under native plants and it provides a protein-rich meal. Jerusalem crickets are also known as earth babies, ninõs de la tierra or potato bugs (but they don't eat potatoes).

Jerusalem cricket

The island fox, the Catalina cherry and the Jerusalem cricket all depend on each other. The island fox eats the Jerusalem cricket, but it also eats the fruit of the Catalina cherry. The seeds of this plant are too big for the finches and small birds to swallow. But the island fox does swallow some of the seeds and helps to disperse the cherry seeds across the island so new plants can grow. Fox Scat The Jerusalem cricket lives under the Catalina cherry plant and eats some of its roots and dead leaves on the ground. It is a decomposer helping create healthy soil where new plants can grow. The island fox, the Catalina cherry and the Jerusalem cricket are just a small part of the interconnected web of plants and animals on the Channel Islands.


The island fox has evolved to have very pointed teeth so it can pick up small insects. The teeth act like tweezers carefully picking up grasshoppers and crickets, while leaving twigs and leaves behind.


Island foxes also eat the native island deer mice, some small birds and their eggs. As summer comes to the island, fruit will start to play an important role in the what the foxes eat.


Follow along with Tani on Twitter or on Facebook as an island fox grows up.

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.