Once Nearly Extinct California Island Foxes No Longer Endangered

Source: NPR



Once Nearly Extinct California Island Foxes No Longer Endangered

August 11, 20169:13 PM ET
RICHARD GONZALES

Just twelve years ago, researchers feared that the California Island fox, a species about the size of a cat inhabiting a group of islands off the Southern California coast, was toast. Non-native predators and pesticides had dramatically reduced their ranks. The few that remained were placed on the endangered species list.

Now, thanks to an aggressive recovery effort, U.S. wildlife officials have removed three subspecies on San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands from the endangered list. A fourth subspecies, the Santa Catalina Island fox, has been upgraded from "endangered" to "threatened."

Officials say the Island foxes' recovery is the fastest of any mammal ever listed under the Endangered Species Act.

"We're ecstatic that we've reached this point so quickly," Steve Henry, field supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's office in Ventura told the Associated Press.

Researchers say the Channel Islands have been home to the diminutive Island fox for thousands of years, but no one knows how they wound up there in the first place. They do know that in the 19th Century, ranchers and farmers introduced non-native pigs, cattle and sheep. Later, DDT wiped out the native, fish-eating (and therefore fox-friendly) bald eagle. In its place came the non-native golden eagle that preyed on feral pigs and island foxes.

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Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/11/489695842/once-nearly-extinct-california-island-foxes-no-longer-endangered