1. http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=LOCAL&ID=56723168
8728510485
Island fox making recovery
Could be removed from endangered list
after study by U.S. Fish and Wildlife
By AARON BANDLER NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
March 12, 2015 6:13 AM
The island fox's
endangered status
will be reviewed
under a new
recovery plan
devised by federal
officials.
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service
plans a year-long
review to see if the
four subspecies of
the island fox - San
Miguel Island fox,
Santa Rosa Island
fox, Santa Cruz
Island fox and
Santa Catalina fox -
can be removed from the federal endangered species list.
The agency will then issue a proposal and the public will be able to
comment.
The final recovery plan for the fox was released at a press conference
Wednesday at Channel Islands National Park.
Tim Coonan, biologist for Channel Islands National Park, is confident
that all four subspecies of island fox will be removed from the
endangered list.
"We've got the numbers, and we're addressing the concerns," Mr.
Share
Story
Tim
Coonan,
wildlife
biologist
with
the
Channel
Islands
National
Park,
describes
the
recovery
of
the
endangered
island
fox.
CARMEN
SMYTH
/
NEWS-­‐PRESS

2. Coonan said. "We have plans in place to deal with epidemics and deal
with eagles if they come out there."
Such plans include epidemic response with veterinary care,
investigation for unusual diseases, and tighter monitoring for golden
eagles, which prey on the island fox.
The island fox is a relative of the mainland gray fox and is a little
smaller than a house cat. It is an omnivore and diurnal, which is due
to a lack of large predators.
The four subspecies of the island fox were listed as endangered in
March 2004 after facing massive population decreases in the 1990s.
Since then, the island fox population has dramatically increased.
The San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina foxes had
population increases ranging from 15 to 103 in 1999-2000. In 2012-
13, increases ranged from 577 to 1,852 and 2014 statistics are
expected to be similar.
"To date, it appears that this is the fastest population rebound due to
recovery actions and ESA (Endangered Species Act) protections for
any land mammal in the United States," Steve Henry, field supervisor
of the Ventura office of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement.
The population increases stem from captivity breeding, removal of
golden eagles and vaccinations.
The fox's decline in the 1990s was due to predation by golden eagles
on the northern islands and the spread of the canine distemper virus
on the southern islands. The two occurred independently of each
other.
"Golden eagles made it over to the Channel Islands in the 1990s," Mr.
Coonan said. "They never made it over to Catalina because there's no
golden eagle source right on the mainland. The mainland there is all
urban Los Angeles. Up here, it's different."
Mr. Coonan said the eagles found a prey base of pigs, deer and elk on
the northern islands and began breeding, which came as a shock to
him.
To alleviate the problem, the golden eagle's prey base was removed

3. by hunting down the pigs and asking ranch owners remove their deer
and elk.
The golden eagles themselves were removed by helicopter and
trapping, and replaced with bald eagles to deter them from returning.
The last golden eagle was removed in 2006.
"We released them into Northeastern California, which is as far as we
could go in California," Mr. Coonan said. "The islands weren't really a
good habitat for eagles. Once they got to the Sierra Nevada, where
there are a ton of ground squirrels and rabbits, none of them came
back."
The island foxes on the southern islands were dying from the canine
distemper virus, which affects the foxes' central nervous system.
"It's a disease that is spread very rapidly through their saliva, through
blood, through feces," said Julie King, Catalina Island Conservancy's
director of conservation and wildlife management.
"Unlike rabies, where you have to a direct bite or individual contact,
with CDV you don't. They can deposit feces on the ground, and the
next fox that comes by will often stop and sniff like your dog would do,
and it would be transferred that way."
The island foxes were vaccinated through a shot in their thigh to
prevent further spread of the disease, which eventually ran its course.
Island foxes also were also put into pens for captivity breeding from
1999-2008, after which they were released into the wild.
e-mail: abandler@newspress.com