Path of the Island Fox

Her path was deliberate. After foraging for mice and other morsels, the lone female island fox scampered up a steep shale bluff cloaked in bushels of lemonade berry and spindly island buckwheat. She ascended the bluff on the southeast end of Santa Cruz Island and sniffed her way along the fringe of the lemonade berry. She was searching for something precious.

It wasn’t easy keeping up with her. She was trotting along at a decent pace while following a familiar, narrow path that only an island fox could take. As I searched for reliable footing in the crumbly shale, she cut hard to the right and I lost sight of her. However, when I caught up, I was pleasantly surprised to see her greeted by two adorable island fox pups, maybe days old. 

Frenetic nursing quickly commenced as the hungry pups suckled on their attentive mother. 

As I photographed the bouncy pups with dark fur and stubby black tails, I had a moment of lucidity. It occurred to me that it had been 30 years since I photographed my first island fox in a dry creek bed at Smugglers Cove in July 1996. 

At the time, I had no idea they were struggling and staring into the face of extinction. More importantly, August 2026 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the island fox being removed from the Endangered Species List, the possibility of extinction blown away like a howling northwest gale.

Silver and Cinnamon 

From their lowest ebb, the silver and cinnamon-colored island foxes nearly disappeared when there were less than 100 Urocyon littoralis left on Santa Cruz Island, and less than 15 each on Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands. In the late 1990s, I vividly remember seeing few, if any, island foxes. It was mostly feral pigs, ranching relics running amok on the largest and most biodiverse island off the California coast.

Island foxes were one of the many casualties of the pesticide DDT, and they also suffered from the effects of the scruffy swine. Bald eagles were missing from the islands from 1952 to 2000 ― 50 years of a keystone species not patrolling the skies. 

With the iconic raptors absent for so long, it opened the door to non-native golden eagles; 43 of them colonized the Channel Islands National Park. Lured over by the pigs, the steely raptors quickly realized it was easier to nab island foxes.

In September 1997, biologists from the National Park Service (NPS) trapped an island fox on San Miguel Island. It was fitted with a radio collar at the top of Nidever Canyon. Two weeks later, the island fox was dead, with a golden eagle feather found next to its carcass. 

Moving quickly, the NPS partnered with The Nature Conservancy, Institute for Wildlife Studies, Santa Barbara Zoo, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and others, forming a bold and aggressive plan to return the islands back to a natural balance. Island foxes were captive bred on each island, and they were added to the Endangered Species List in 2004.

From 2002 to 2006 bald eagles were returned to their old island haunts, reclaiming territories across the northern chain. Bald eagles don’t hunt island foxes ― instead they feast on fish and seabirds. Their predatory counterparts, the golden eagles, were trapped and relocated back to Northeastern California. 

From the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2008, feral pigs were then eradicated from Santa Cruz Island. Pro Hunt, a company from New Zealand that specializes in removing non-natives from islands, was hired to quell the pig problem.

There were other conservation projects taking place to right the island ecology, but bringing the foxes back from the brink, along with the successful return of bald eagles, was an extraordinary example of conservation working when it’s allowed to. 

Business is Booming

In August 2016, the island fox was removed from the Endangered Species List. It was the swiftest recovery of a terrestrial mammal in the history of the Endangered Species Act. Today about 3,000 foxes bound across Santa Cruz, with 2,800 on Santa Rosa, and little more than 300 on San Miguel. Due to the recent fire on Santa Rosa Island, their numbers are sure to have dropped, but overall, the populations are stable across the northern chain.

Each spring into early summer, when the first island fox pups emerge from their lemonade berry homes, it reinforces the restoration of the ecosystem. The smallest fox species in North America carries a lot more weight than its tiny four-pound frame suggests. It offers hope to other wild places that are under pressure for their land and resources.

When those two pups greeted their doting mother on that sweeping marine terrace, it reminded me how close this endemic species was to extinction. However, after 10 years of successful efforts, it’s reassuring that the island biome is continuing on its path of recovery