The island fox is found on six of the eight Channel Islands, but its population plummeted by 95 percent in the 1990s, which led to the development of the Island Fox Conservation Working Group. In 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed four of the six subspecies of the fox as endangered. This is one of the quickest recoveries of species Ive ever seen. It normally takes a species about 25 years to come off the list, said Tim Coonan, a biologist and member of the conservation group. The population decline happened because golden eagles preyed upon the foxes on San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands, while disease devastated the subspecies on Catalina Island. The eagles were attracted by small feral pigs that were not native to the islands but were an easy food source. In 1999, conservationists began an intensive recovery program that included relocating the eagles, killing off the pigs and breeding foxes in captivity. The island foxes in a normal environment dont have any predators, said David Garcelon, president of the Institute for Wildlife Studies. With the golden eagles gone, once you get them out there and let them reproduce on their own, they are fine.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 19:31:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015