The Channel Island Fox and People

Island foxes have a long history with people.  We don't know for sure how island foxes first arrived on the Channel Islands. There are two basic theories:

1. Gray foxes were stranded on the northern islands during the ice age when water levels were lower and the distance from the mainland to the islands was approximately four miles. The water level was low enough that San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa were one big island. Other animals like mammoths swam over to the island and lived there as well. Over thousands of years both the island fox and the mammoth adapted to smaller territory and less resources on the islands and became dwarf in size.
2. Native Americans transported mainland gray foxes out to the islands and over a few thousand years the species evolved to be the island fox.

There is very little fossil evidence of foxes on the islands. Scientists are currently evaluating 6,000-year-old-fossil fox bones found on the northern islands to determine if they are island fox bones or bones of the ancestral gray fox. If the DNA shows the remains belonged to an island fox then it is more likely that this island species was on the Channel Islands before humans arrived in North America.

For at least several thousand years, island foxes interacted with the island communities of Chumash people. On Santa Cruz Island, Chumash villages existed in the areas of both Scorpion Anchorage and Prisoner’s Harbor. Over time, these native people transported island foxes to the southern islands of Santa Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas.

The island fox was not a pet, it was a wild animal that lived side-by-side with the native people. Images of island foxes appear in rock art on Santa Catalina Island and archeologists have found ancient ceremonial burials of island foxes in several locations.

Island foxes lived on San Nicolas Island with the Lone Woman whose story was told in the novel “Island of the Blue Dolphins” by Scott O’Dell. The facts of this classic story of survival are gradually coming to light. Archeologists have recently found the cave on this treeless, windswept island where the woman found shelter. L.A. Times article

treeless San Nicolas Island, one of the California Channel Islands

As more artifacts are uncovered, we may finally know who this woman was and what interactions she had with animals, like the island fox, that shared the island with her.

Today, campers and day visitors are interacting with the island fox. When you stop and watch an island fox, you are a time traveler seeing what native people saw thousands of years ago.

400 Endangered Island Foxes Protected

photo courtesy of Melissa Baffa

These two island fox pups born on the Channel Islands this year have a glowing future because their human neighbors care about protecting them.

Friends of the Island Fox is thrilled to announce that the Fresno Chaffee Zoo has awarded us a Conservation Grant of $2,000 to vaccinate 200 endangered Channel Island foxes against canine distemper.

This is a doubly rewarding acknowledgement because:

1. These matching funds combine with private donations raised this summer to meet our goal of $4,000 to vaccinate 100 endangered island foxes against canine distemper on FOUR islands.
2. This is also the sixth year that the Fresno Chaffee Zoo has supported conservation efforts on behalf of the endangered Channel Island fox. In previous years they have funded radio tracking collars on individual island foxes.

It is heartening when a local California zoo sees the importance of supporting conservation of a local endangered species. The Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been a strong partner in helping to save the endangered island fox and we thank them for recognizing the continued success of island fox recovery depends on proactive vaccination against disease.

Thank you to everyone who supported our canine distemper vaccination drive this summer.

You helped protect 400 Channel Island foxes from canine distemper in 2012 !

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.

Foxy Ladies Help Island Foxes

Why is that Channel Island fox in a cage?

Each year in late summer / early autumn, island foxes are caught in safe capture cages so that their numbers can be counted. This also allows the biologists on the six islands, where the island foxes live, to check the health of individual foxes, replace old radio tracking collars and to vaccinate the island foxes against disease.

Canine distemper virus and rabies pose a serious threat to the endangered Channel Island fox. Distemper virus nearly caused the extinction of the Santa Catalina Island fox between 1994 and 2000. The population crashed from 1,342 individuals to 165.

The four endangered subspecies of island foxes on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands are successfully recovering and the job of protecting them from disease is a priority. Island foxes have territories that overlap. Recent studies modeling how distemper travels through island fox populations conclude that the best way to protect a viable percentage of island foxes in the event of distemper introduction is to vaccinate a minimum of 100 individuals. And since the vaccine’s protection against the disease only lasts one year, a minimum of 100 island foxes need to be vaccinated on each island annually.

This year Friends of the Island Fox set a goal of raising $2,000 to fund canine distemper vaccinations for 100 foxes on two of the four islands where they are an endangered species. ($10 vaccinates an island fox against canine distemper)

Rita Mays (left) and some of the El Segundo Ladies Golf Club's Foxy Ladies

In August 2012 The Foxy Ladies, the women of the El Segundo Ladies Golf Club, took a big swing at our goal. They held a Golf Tournament to raise funds for island fox vaccinations and they raised $1,600!

Thanks to Rita Mays, the tournament organizer, and her golf-playing Foxy Ladies, 160 island foxes will be protected from canine distemper this year.

From golf tournaments to baseball games, to island trips, to lifelong learning programs for Road Scholar, our summer drive has surpassed our goal!

You helped us raise $2,960 for vaccinations ! 

Every $10 raised helps to protect an endangered island fox from this very contagious disease. This will protect 296 foxes. 

Can we make it 400? 

A 100 island foxes vaccinated on four islands? You can help make a difference by donating too.

Annual trapping is happening across the Channel Islands. Follow the story of island foxes Tani and Tiptu, and their pup Meymey, on Twitter and Facebook as they experience fall trapping and health checks.

Santa Cruz Island Wetland

Look closely for the small pond in front of the dead tree.

Can there be a wetland on a dry island? Yes.

Santa Cruz Island is the largest of the Southern California Channel Islands. The eastern side of the island is composed of porous volcanic rock. Rain water peculates through the rock and comes to the surface as springs in a few areas. One of these areas is at Prisoner's Harbor.

In the past couple of years the wetland at Prisoner's Harbor has been going through restoration. Landfill was removed so the springs were once again able to reach the surface and therefore become a resting spot for migratory birds. A dead tree or snag was left in place as a perching area. The rare island scrub-jay, insect eating black phoebes and a variety of birds are using this natural perch.

This spring native willows, grasses and even oaks were carefully planted. Brightly colored flags, mark the different vegetation areas that are delineated by elevation. Small variation in elevation means differing amounts of freshwater. 

Looking across the restored wetland toward the sea.

Wetlands are rapidly disappearing along the California coast. The restoration of this wetland helps not only the endangered island fox on Santa Cruz Island, but a wide range of species on this island.

This is the area of Santa Cruz Island where our facebook and Twitter island fox family lives along side an island scrub-jay family. Follow their adventures on-line or in the black box on the right edge of this page.

An Island Fox with a Will to Live

male island fox after recovery from leg amputation

FIF strives to connect the scientists in the field with the local community that cares about Channel Island foxes. We are thrilled to offer this:

Report from the Field
 

By Calvin Duncan, Island Fox Biologist, Catalina Island Conservancy

No matter how many times it happens, it is always amazing to see the resilience of animals and their ability to bounce back from serious injury. While conducting the annual Island-wide fox trapping survey and vaccination efforts last fall, Conservancy biologists captured a five-year-old male fox suffering from a compound fracture (broken bones exposed through skin) on his rear right leg.

The injury occurred several weeks prior to his capture and we suspect that another dominant male fox in the area was likely to blame. “Island foxes are extremely territorial” reports Julie King, the Conservancy’s senior wildlife biologist. “Injuries sustained by fighting males can often be permanently debilitating or even fatal.”

In most cases the proper approach is to let nature, as cruel as it may often be, take its course, but the Conservancy is still actively working to recover the Catalina Island fox population from its near extinction in 1999. For that reason, we actively treat injuries detected in the field and work to improve the health and survival of each fox captured during the annual survey. Approximately 80% of the fox population on Catalina Island is also vaccinated against both canine distemper virus (CDV) and rabies as a means of protecting the population against another potential disease introduction.

In this particular case, the injured fox was immediately transported to the Animal Clinic in Catalina for assessment and potential treatment. In addition to the obvious leg injury the fox was also extremely thin due to its inability to effectively forage for several weeks. Conservancy biologists consulted with Avalon veterinarian Dr. Richard Denney and agreed upon an approach that would require the amputation of the injured leg.

According to Julie King there have been several wild foxes on Catalina and the other Channel Islands that have sustained injuries where the amputation of a leg was necessary and the foxes were released and survived.

“At the conclusion of the captive breeding program in 2004, an adult female was released with only three legs” says Julie King, “while monitoring her post-release, she was found to have traveled several miles before settling into a territory and successfully raising pups.”

Biologist Calvin Duncan with recovering fox

Though the bone fracture on the male island fox occurred within the tarsal bones or “ankle joint,” the leg was amputated mid- femur and the remaining nub was tucked under the skin. According to Dr. Denney this was necessary in order to eliminate the chance that the fox would attempt to walk on the remaining limb leading to abrasions and potential infection.

After the surgery the fox was transported to the Conservancy’s Middle Ranch Wildlife Field Clinic where he was cared for by Conservancy biologists during his twenty-day recovery.

On October 4, 2011 he was fitted with a radio collar and successfully released at his original capture location. We continue to monitor this fox as he makes his adjustment back into the wild and to date he is doing well.

This is another example of how radio collars are used to help monitor individual island foxes.

Video of an island fox barking taken by Calvin Duncan

Channel Island Foxes Reaching Recovery!

courtesy of Anita Machlis

Twelve years ago, four subspecies of Channel Island foxes almost went extinct. Today in 2012, all populations are stable or increasing. The three populations of island foxes on San Miguel, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands have reached or are approaching the historic numbers documented before introduced disease and predation by golden eagles caused catastrophic declines.

Yesterday, June 12, 2012, the biologists, field researchers, scientists, veterinarians, government agencies and conservation organizations that make up the Integrated Island Fox Recovery Team met to report on each island fox population, compare findings and discuss actions to be taken in the coming year.

It was a day of good news:

• no island foxes killed by golden eagles since January of 2011
• reduced numbers of island foxes hit by cars
• increased numbers of pups born in 2011
• no raccoons accidentally transported to Santa Catalina Island so far in 2012
• introduced mule deer and elk have been removed from Santa Rosa Island

And changing concerns:

• to protect island foxes from the canine distemper virus, vaccinations must be given annually
• increasing island fox populations mean more interactions between wild island foxes and humans and/or their pets
• decreasing funds for monitoring efforts
• need for greater understanding of naturally occurring diseases and parasites
• need for greater understanding of natural island fox diet and impacts from interactions with humans

It was exciting to see the growing community of scientists interested in researching island foxes and the Channel Island ecosystems. There were representatives from:

• University of California, Davis and Los Angeles
• Smithsonian
• Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
• Colorado State University
• University of Wyoming

In twelve years, the San Miguel Island fox has gone from a low of 15 individuals to a thriving 581. This is an amazing population increase of 3,830%, as reported in “On Time, On Target; How the Endangered Species Act Is Saving America’s Wildlife” compiled by the Center for Biological Diversity.

At the heart of this successful recovery is the Integrated Island Fox Recovery Team and the joint effort of people from Channel Islands National Park, Catalina Island Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, Institute for Wildlife Studies, the U.S. Navy, CA Dept. of Fish & Game and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, all working together, sharing information and experience. When you add concerned private citizens like you who help support continued monitoring of island foxes by funding radio collars and annual vaccinations, you have one of the most successful efforts to save an endangered species in history.

Check back in the next few weeks for details from annual meeting.

GO FOXES!

The endangered Channel Island fox has new friends! 

Over a thousand miles away from the California coast, in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Foxes Baseball Club is rallying behind the island fox. On June 10, 2012 the Foxes will pitch-in for the endangered island fox by raising funds to benefit Channel Island fox conservation. For more on their special drawing.

The Foxes are part of the summer Mountain Collegiate Baseball League and their logo shares a common interest with Friends of the Island Fox–FOXES!  

Through June 10th, the baseball club is also donating 15% of the Internet proceeds from baseball cap sales to support Friends of the Island Fox. Visit the Fort Collins Foxes website and see if there is a fox cap for you.

If you're in the Fort Collins, Colorado vicinity check out:

Fort Collins Foxes vs Casper Cutthroats 

6:15 PM Sunday, June 10 

...and cheer on the team to a home run for island foxes.

Protecting Island Foxes from Canine Distemper Virus

Island Foxes need your Help! As the endangered populations of Channel Island foxes on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands reach recovery levels, a threat to their survival looms–the introduction of disease.

In the late 1990s canine distemper virus almost wiped out the island foxes on Santa Catalina Island. This virus is related to the measles virus that impacts people and, like that disease vaccination, is the the best protection against it. Pet dogs are vaccinated against canine distemper virus because it is highly contagious and easily transferred from one animal to another either directly or indirectly. There is no known cure for distemper and it is lethal to a high percentage of animals that become infected. Other mammals can be impacted by distemper viruses as well–sea lions, most wild members of the dog family, lions, raccoons. It was a raccoon from the mainland that transported the deadly canine distemper virus to Catalina Island.
Canine distemper is in the news again. As of April 2012, canine distemper virus caused the death of a number of kit foxes in the Mojave Desert in conjunction with an area being developed for solar energy.

People provide pathways for disease to find its way to isolated locations, like the desert and the Channel Islands. The threat of canine distemper virus reoccurring on the Channel Islands is high. To protect Channel Island foxes it is vital that at least 100 island foxes are vaccinated each year on each island.

Island foxes can be easily vaccinated during the late summer population count and health checks. But each vaccination has a cost. The vaccination shot alone costs $10 per island fox.

Help us vaccinate 200 island foxes this Fall.

Friends of the Island Fox is trying to raise $2,000 to vaccinate 200 island foxes. You can play an important role in protecting the rare Channel Island fox. Every $10 dollars helps protect the future for island foxes.

Island Fox Pups

Across the Channel Islands, island fox pups are being born. For their first months of life they look more like little brown bears than their dramatically marked parents. 

Typically, island foxes become parents in their second year, but sometimes a male or female may become a first-time parent before they are a year old.


Most island fox pairs have 2-3 pups in a litter, but a young female like our Twitter fox, Tani, might have only one pup. 


This year rainfall on the Channel Islands has been low to normal. Weather can also affect the number of pups born because rainfall can impact food resources. Annual rainfall.

island fox bringing 3 deer mice home for family, photo courtesy NPS

While female island foxes are in their dens with their new born pups, the fathers play the role of providers, bringing food to their mate and eventually the pups. 


Over the last year Friends of the Island Fox has followed Tani, an island fox character, as she grew up and became a mother herself. Join us as we follow Tani's mate, Tiptu, and get a male fox's perspective over the next few months on Twitter and Facebook. Tiptu, is "big ears" in Chumash, the local native American language. Tiptu has befriended another rare animal only found on the Channel Islands - an island scrub-jay. 


Island scrub-jays have a family structure similar to the island fox, so Jay will have insight to help his friend the island fox through his first year as a father. The island scrub-jays are nesting as well. Spring brings all kinds of new life to the Channel Islands.