CHANNEL ISLANDS, Calif. - <\/p>\n
After being on the verge of extinction the Channel Islands fox is now once again thriving in its natural environment. <\/p>\n
Officials announced Wednesday that the Channel Islands fox may be ready to come off the list of endangered species, and that they have started the review process to do just that. <\/p>\n
The Channel Island fox, is a relative of the mainland gray fox and is unique to the Channel Islands, with six distinct subspecies living on each of the six largest California Channel Islands. <\/p>\n
The fox is smaller than a house cat weighing only 3 to 4 pounds and each sub species has different genetics as well as physical differences. <\/p>\n
Tim Coonan, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service, started at Channel Islands National Park in 1992, when these foxes were a common site on the islands, but within a few years things drastically changed. <\/p>\n
We didnt know what the problem was at first but then we discovered the majority of our radio collard foxes had been killed by Golden Eagles which are very stealthy birds they dont normally breed on the islands and they never had until the 1990s in fact we went from 450 foxes on San Miguel to 15 in 1999, said Coonan. <\/p>\n
The fox populations on Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Santa Cruz, as well as Santa Catalina, declined by 90 to 95 percent by 1999-2000. These four fox populations were federally listed as endangered in 2004. <\/p>\n
The major reason for the decline of island foxes on the northern Channel Islands was a consequence of hyper-predation by golden eagles a non-native species to the island. <\/p>\n
To prevent the foxes from becoming extinct immediate conservation actions were taken to address the threats and prevent the island foxes from extinction. <\/p>\n
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