After an intense recovery program, three groups of California's rare island foxes have been removed from the United States' endangered species list on Thursday, Aug. 11.
According to officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the population of Channel Island foxes once on the brink of extinction has now rebounded. Meanwhile, a fourth group of island fox was relegated to "threatened."
Fastest Recovery Among Endangered Mammals
About 12 years ago, wildlife scientists feared that the California island foxes would be completely wiped out.
At that time, the population of these cat-like animals, which inhabit a group of islands located off the coast of Southern California, had been reduced by pesticides and non-native predators. The remaining animals had been placed under the endangered species protection.
Now, these island foxes have marked the fastest recovery yet for an endangered mammal.
Wildlife officials have removed three island fox subspecies on Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands from the endangered list. The fourth subspecies, the Santa Catalina Island fox, has been placed on the "threatened" list.
Statistics from the USFWS show that the population of these four subspecies has increased from less than 200 animals in the 1990s to nearly 6,000 as of 2015.
"We're ecstatic that we've reached this point so quickly," says Steve Henry, USFWS Ventura office field supervisor.
Restoration Programs
The population rebound of the island foxes was hastened by an aggressive recovery program that involved several measures: removal of feral pigs from the Channel Islands, captive breeding of the island foxes and decreasing an influx of golden eagles from the mainland, which have turned into an invasive predator.
Furthermore, wildlife officials began injecting the island foxes with vaccine against canine distemper — a contagious and severe viral illness that affects the animal's gastrointestinal, respiratory and central nervous systems.
This dangerous virus poses a great threat to animals on Santa Catalina Island, the only island in the archipelago with a significant civilian population.
Meanwhile, officials say hunting will not be an issue for the Santa Catalina fox because it remains listed as threatened.
The other three subspecies, which are no longer on the endangered list, inhabit three of the five other islands that make up the Channel Islands National Park, where hunting is illegal.
The Channel Islands have been home to the tiny island fox for thousands of years but scientists are not certain how the animals arrived at the archipelago. As of 2015, the population of all four island fox groups has been restored to historic levels, officials said.
Photo: Ken Bosma | Flickr
