Team that Saved Foxes from Extinction on Northern Channel Islands Honored by Service

By Ashley Spratt

Tim Coonan, a retired wildlife biologist from the National Park Service, recounts the sobering moment he realized island foxes on San Miguel Island were on the verge of extinction.

“I remember a few of us sitting in the bunk house at San Miguel Island in 1998. The latest survey showed less than 30 foxes on that island and we knew that if we wanted to save them, we were going to have to bring the remaining foxes in to captivity,” he said.

This spring, Coonan was among eight people recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as "Recovery Champions" for their remarkable teamwork spanning more than a decade to save island foxes on the northern Channel Islands from a seemingly inevitable fate.

“Each of these team members, and the organizations they represent, set a vision to bring these island fox subspecies back from the brink. Because of their tireless dedication...island foxes on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz Islands have recovered to self-sustaining levels.”
Steve Henry, Field Supervisor, Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office

In the late 1990s, island foxes on the northern Channel Islands of Santa Rosa, Santa Miguel, and Santa Cruz Islands were plummeting. Non-native golden eagles took up residence on the northern islands after native bald eagles were wiped from their home territory during the era of DDT.

These avian predators thrived on the small foxes, an easy and unsuspecting prey-base. By the turn of the century, fox populations on these islands had dropped by 90 percent, from more than 3,600 foxes in 1994 to fewer than 100 in 2000.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the subspecies as federally endangered under the Endangered Species Act. With extinction an imminent threat, scientists, biologists, and natural resource managers across agencies and organizations rallied around a common mission to bring the island fox back from the brink on the northern Channel Islands.

Christie Boser, biologist with The Nature Conservancy, has been working toward that mission with Coonan and others for more than ten years.

“When I started working on Santa Cruz, the island was a different place,” she said. Remnants of the ranching era could still be seen on the islands into the 1980s. European settlers had introduced sheep, cattle and non-native pigs to the island, shifting the island ecosystem out of balance. By the 1950s bald eagles disappeared from the northern Channel Islands due to the impacts of hunting, egg collection and DDT. By the 1990s, in the absence of bald eagles, golden eagles established nests on the northern Channel Islands, attracted to and sustained by an unnatural year-round food source – feral piglets - and began to prey on the island foxes.

“There were hardly any foxes and there was a lot of concern around the fate of the species,” Boser said. “We had one orphaned pup whose parents were likely killed by golden eagles. She was in bad shape and required extensive medical care.” It was around that time that Boser, along with researchers and fox experts from the Institute for Wildlife Studies and the National Park Service, initiated a captive breeding program– an effort never before undertaken with this species. The program began in 1999 and captive bred foxes were released to the wild from 2003 until 2008.

“For a few months after we released those foxes, we’d track them every day. Seeing them thriving, their survival instinct kicking in immediately even though they’d never foraged for food on their own, that was special,” Boser said. “That orphan pup that we cared for, she was eventually released to the wild with the other captive foxes.”

As the captive breeding program progressed, land managers worked to address the threats impacting foxes in the wild. Golden eagles were captured and relocated to northern California, with the last pair removed in 2006. David Garcelon, president of the Institute for Wildlife Studies, was a key player in informing and guiding management actions, like the golden eagle relocation project. “While not an easy task in the first place, it became increasingly difficult to capture the last of the golden eagles. The remaining golden eagles had seen all of the trapping tricks so it required developing and testing new capture approaches they had not seen.”

To reduce the likelihood of golden eagles returning to the island, the land managers worked to remove the non-native species that provided prey for the golden eagles, including feral pigs.

“Those recovery actions, golden eagle relocation and island fox captive breeding and reintroduction, were effective, surprisingly so. We were able to halt captive breeding after 10 years because island foxes survived and reproduced so well once we released them,” Coonan explained.

With golden eagles gone from the islands, bald eagles made an extraordinary comeback. In 2006, a bald eagle pair hatched the first bald eagle chick on the Channel Islands in over 50 years.

“The larger, ecosystem-wide recovery actions of feral pig removal and bald eagle restoration have restored equilibrium to the islands,” he said. “We’ve tipped the balance away from nonnative species and toward the persistence of the native island fox.”

After little more than a decade, with island fox populations flourishing, those who worked on island fox recovery - some dedicating their entire careers to the effort - can breathe a sigh of relief. Their vision was realized. Island fox numbers have bounced back to historic levels – around 700 on San Miguel Island, 1,200 on Santa Rosa Islands, and more than 2,100 on Santa Cruz Island.

“Each of these team members, and the organizations they represent, set a vision to bring these island fox subspecies back from the brink,” said Steve Henry, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura, during a ceremony on May 20 honoring representatives from The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. “Because of their tireless dedication to finding a way to save these subspecies, island foxes on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz Islands have recovered to self-sustaining levels.”

As a result, Henry explained that the Service has proposed to delist these three subspecies, marking the fastest recovery of any mammal under Endangered Species Act protections.

He added, “The success of this team’s efforts is a testament to what we can accomplish for endangered wildlife by working together.”

The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy will continue to monitor island fox populations on the northern Channel Islands. The Island Fox Recovery Plan, published in 2015, also serves as a blueprint for conservation partners and land managers to prevent or address threats to island fox subspecies, including an eagle management plan and disease epidemic response plan, and outlines proven methods to ensure the subspecies’ long-term viability in the wild.

After studying the biology and ecology of island foxes for more than thirty years, Garcelon said he never tired of learning about the species and working to prevent their extinction. “Island foxes are very resilient. All we had to do was remove the pressures causing their demise and they were able to recover well on their own.”

He added, “Working with a great team of people on the island fox recovery made the work all the move satisfying.”

Among the Recovery Champion award winners honored for their island fox recovery work include David Garcelon of the Institute for Wildlife Studies, Lotus Vermeer, Christina Boser, Eamon O’Byrne, and Scott Morrison of The Nature Conservancy, and Tim Coonan, Kate Faulkner, and Russell Galipeau of Channel Islands National Park.

The Recovery Champion awards program began in 2002 as a recognition program for Service staff members for their achievements in conserving threatened and endangered species. In 2007, the program was expanded to honor those who partner with the Service, recognizing their essential role in the recovery of threatened and endangered species.

FWS Recovery Champions:  Northern Channel Island Fox Recovery Team

Ashley Spratt is the public affairs officer for the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office.