Give the Gift of Saving a Species

photo courtesy of NPS volunteer Inge Rose

Across San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands, island fox numbers are rising. Populations that hovered just above extinction, with just 15 individual animals, are climbing toward recovery.


This Holiday Season you can give the gift of helping support island fox recovery.

$250 funds a radio-collar for an island fox
To date Friends of the Island Fox has funded 47 radio-tracking collars for monitoring wild island foxes. Radio collars provide important information on island fox welfare, including the first information on threats from disease or golden eagle predation. Radio Collars.

When you sponsor a radio collar you receive information about an individual island fox, its history and current life in the wild. You are actively playing a role in island fox conservation.

$100 supports Friends of the Island Fox education programs in schools
This year alone, FIF provided FREE educational programs to 2,000 students from 3rd grade to college. The next generation is the vital connection to sustaining wild populations of island foxes. FIF in schools. Interaction with students and community.

$50 funds rabies and distemper vaccinations for 5 island foxes
Diseases transmitted from domestic pets or introduced animals pose a serious threat to island foxes. Each year island foxes are given Health Checks. In order to maintain viable populations in the face of another disease outbreak, 80 - 100 island foxes need to be vaccinated on all 6 islands.

You can play an active role in island fox recovery by donating to Friends of the Island Fox. Give a gift that makes a difference and helps to save the endangered island fox.

More on why the island fox is endangered.

Island Foxes Back in the Wild

Friday November 7, the remaining able-bodied male island fox in captivity at the captive breeding facility on Santa Rosa Island was released into the wild. This happy day marks an important milestone in the recovery of this endangered species.

You can WATCH a moment of history as 6-year-old, M-67 steps out of his transport carrier and into the island scrub of Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park. LOOK for M-67's radio telemetry collar. The tracking collar was funded by donations to Friends of the Island Fox and will help keep track of this tiny fox as he makes his way in the wild.

How Can You Help the Island Fox ?

The island fox lives on six of California’s Channel Islands and no where else in the world. While pups like these are helping increase the various island populations, they are still highly endangered.For the most recent fox status from the northern islands read the December Island Fox Update

You can help the island fox by supporting conservation efforts:

• captive breeding programs
• current conservation
• bald eagle recovery
  

Through Friends of the Island Fox you can also help to fund important island fox management, public education and research.


Fox Veterinarian - $5,000 helps pay for veterinarian visits to the islands to care for sick foxes in the captive breeding facility, conduct annual physicals and administer vaccinations.

Fox Guardian – $2,500 helps fund signs at Channel Island landings to educate visitors and ensure the safety and health of island foxes.

Fox Researcher – $1,000 helps provide funding for island fox research projects.

Fox Ambassador – $500 pays for a teaching trunk to be loaned to teachers in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties for classroom education about the island fox and the California Channel Islands.

Fox Tracker – $250 buys a radio collar so a released island fox can be tracked to ensure its safety.

Fox Teacher – $100 purchases needed educational materials to be used in classroom and community programs.

Donations of any size help the cause to SAVE THE ISLAND FOX. You can donate directly through the PayPal or Network for Good buttons in the upper right corner or through the mail. (Download brochure)

You can also help by inviting Friends of the Island Fox representatives to speak at your community group or school.

Schools, classrooms or youth groups can also participate in the Fox Ambassador Program as a conservation or Earth Day Project.

Contact us by phone at (805) 386-0386 or e-mail: admin@islandfox.org

You can also help the island fox by supporting zoological facilities that house San Clemente Island foxes.

To join the Island Fox News e-mail list, send a request to islandfoxnews@gmail.com

Working Together We Can Save The Island Fox

Island Fox Research Notes – Hilary Swarts

Hilary in the field on Santa Cruz Island with one of the oldest collared females, A3Y. (Photo by Jessica Sanchez)

“You can kind of see her collar ID colors: Pink, White, Pink, Pink. That's how we identify the foxes photographed by remote cameras. Annoyingly, it doesn't work all the time. This female just got her newly painted collar in mid October.” - Hilary

Research: Circadian temporal activity of the Santa Cruz Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis): A possible newfound anti-predator defense for a naïve, endangered species

Hilary Swarts, a PhD candidate at the University of California at Davis, is studying the behavioral response of the island fox to golden eagles, a predator to which foxes are not adapted. Her theory is that foxes, which are naturally active during the day (diurnal), have possibly changed their behavior in response to predation pressures from golden eagles. Eagles also hunt during the day, so foxes may be responding by being more active at night (nocturnal). Specifically, the research is investigating whether behavior patterns of foxes on Santa Cruz Island have changed in the period since the 1990’s when golden eagles colonized that island. If foxes have changed their behavior, this shift may be a selection- or learning-based response to predation by golden eagles, or it may be a response to reduced fox density.

Hilary’s research will examine several aspects of island fox ecology including reproductive success, changes in population abundance in response to different levels of predation, daytime activity levels in the absence of predation, and will compare measures of daytime activity to the risk of predation. The results from her research will contribute scientifically to the understanding of the effects of invasions on behavioral ecology, while also providing crucial information to resource managers on the risks of golden eagle predation to the Santa Cruz Island fox population.

Hilary Swarts , Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology
University of California at Davis


FIF plans to fund future island fox research. You can help with your donation to Friends of the Island Fox, Inc. To donate use the PayPal or Network for Good buttons in the upper right corner.

For more on Santa Cruz Island and the island fox:

• Experiencing Santa Cruz Island
  
• Where Does the Island Fox Live
• What is an Island Fox
• What Do Island Foxes Eat?