BIO227Fall2015.06: Santa Catalina Island Fox

by Dominique La France

Urocyon littoralis catalinae

About the Channel Island Fox

The Channel Island foxes are all fairly small and dark in color, compared to their closest relative, the gray fox. However, the Santa Catalina Island fox is the largest of all the foxes inhabiting the Channel Islands. All of the Channel Island foxes have a grayish-white and black face, and the neck and parts of the ear have a reddish color. They also show sexual size dimorphism, which explains why the male foxes are larger and heavier than the female foxes.

The Channel Island fox is a generalist, meaning that the island fox eats a wide variety of food. They prey on many sorts of insects and, specifically on Santa Catalina Island, they prey on house mice and introduced rats. Though foxes are nocturnal, the island foxes are more diurnal than the gray fox.

Geography

The Santa Catalina Island fox is located on the island of Santa Catalina, which is part of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The Channel Islands are owned by the National Park Service, the U.S. Navy Nature Conservancy and the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy. Foxes are thought to have been brought from the mainland to the northern islands by the Native Americans. However, Santa Catalina is a southern Channel Island. How could they have gotten there? Well, their presence on the southern islands is much more recent than the northern island foxes, and they are thought to have been brought there by Native Americans who had them as pets.

Listing

The Santa Catalina Island fox was listed as endangered on March 3, 2015. Only four of the six Channel Island foxes are listed as endangered, but they are all listed as threatened.

Threats

The Santa Catalina fox went from over 1,300 foxes to 103 foxes. Some of the main threats to these island foxes are land destruction and disease. Many of the non-native species have a lot to do with the large decrease in foxes. The non-native animal species, such as cattle, horses, sheep and pigs are overgrazing which is greatly effecting the vegetation on the island. The wood grown areas that foxes prefer are changing into non-native grasslands. This becomes a large threat to the foxes because it does not protect them very well from predators coming from the sky, such as golden eagles and red-tailed hawks.

The Santa Catalina fox is greatly effected by the Canine Distemper virus. From 1999 to 2000, there was a huge population decline in this particular subspecies of foxes because of this virus. Canine Distemper virus is a virus that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems in canines. This disease continues to be a concern because Santa Catalina is quite accessible from the mainland and has a decent human population size who own dogs and cats.

Canine Distemper Virus in a dog

Another current threat to the Santa Catalina fox is ceruminous gland carcinoma, which is ear tumors. The tumors are closely connected to ear mites, which have been found in all Channel Island populations, however, island foxes from Santa Catalina are the only foxes to show signs of ear tumors.

Another huge threat to many of the foxes on all the islands are vehicles on the road. The annual average of foxes on Santa Catalina that were killed by vehicles was four foxes per year during 2002 to 2007. There is also records of an unknown person who shot a Santa Catalina Island fox in 2007.

Recovery Plan

The Catalina Island Conservancy (CIC) took full responsibily of the conservation efforts for the foxes in 2006. They own and manage 88% of the island. They implemented a four step recovery process to try to help recover the foxes from the canine distemper virus. They first completed a mark-recapture sampling to estimate the current Santa Catalina Island fox population. Then they moved young foxes from the west end of the island to the east end because a lot of the fox population from the east end had declined due to the virus. The third step was to vaccinate all of the foxes. The final step was to add a captive breeding program for these fox subspecies.

What Can You Do?

To help keep the population of island foxes stable and make sure their numbers never decrease again, you can donate money to Friends of the Island Fox, which is part of the Channel Islands Foundation. The money you donate helps buy radio collars, vaccinations, identification microchips, health checks and road signs for foxes to prevent vehicles from hitting them. If you would like to become more involved with the Foundation, another good opportunity to help is by volunteering at schools and community centers to help raise awareness to people about the Santa Catalina Island fox.