SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- Minutes after federal officials announced Thursday that the animal would be protected under the Endangered Species Act, a baby Channel Islands fox scampered across its pen, flopped onto a small hammock and dozed off.
The much-anticipated announcement was no big deal for the grayish, housecat-sized fox, but it marked a major step for scientists, conservationists and park officials desperately trying to save a creature that is nearly extinct. About 75 foxes roam Santa Cruz Island -- down from about 1,500 a decade ago.
After years of campaigning by conservationists, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have added to the federal endangered list four subspecies of wild foxes native to Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Catalina islands off the Ventura and Los Angeles county coasts. A little more than 300 wild foxes remain on the four islands.
"The new designation gives us the full protection of the Endangered Species Act and compels the landowners of the island and managers to do all that can be done to protect the foxes," said Peter Dratch, the National Park Service's endangered-species program manager.
The listing means more federal money and resources will be available to save the diminutive foxes, which are found nowhere else in the world. It also means fines and possibly jail time for anyone who knowingly kills the animals.
But humans are not the problem. Golden eagles, which also make their home on the islands, have decimated the fox population, reducing their numbers by 95% over the last decade.
Efforts are underway to remove the predatory birds from the islands and restore the fox population. Balancing the islands' sensitive ecosystem, however, is a challenge that has kept game and park service officials busy for years.
"Four fox [species] were kept from the brink of extinction, but the work isn't over," said Mike McCrary, an endangered-species coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's a long way from the edge of disaster to where we will have a healthy and safe population of foxes roaming free on the islands."
McCrary and representatives from the Nature Conservancy, National Park Service and the Institute for Wildlife Studies jointly announced the foxes' new endangered status while standing in the island's lush central valley at the base of a newly built captive breeding area.
"Today, we've hit a milestone," said a smiling Russell Galipeau, Channel Islands National Park superintendent.
