On Catalina Island, just off the coast of Los Angeles, there is a beautiful little animal that has faced some hardships.
The Catalina Island fox is an endemic subspecies of the gray fox that lives on the mainland of California. "Endemic" means this fox is found in one place only and nowhere else in the world.
Before 1999, there were about 1,300 of these animals on Catalina Island. But then an outbreak of canine distemper caused the fox population to go down to just over 100 animals. Something had to be done.
The Catalina Island Conservancy and the Institute for Wildlife Studies created a program to help the fox recover.
First, healthy foxes were brought in from unaffected areas of the island.
Second, foxes were caught, given vaccinations against the distemper virus and then released back into the wild.
Third, a captive-breeding facility -- sort of like an animal hotel for foxes -- was created. The foxes could live at the facility for a short time and have their kits (babies) there. This allowed biologists to monitor the health of the kits before they were released into the wild to start their own families.
And, finally, the Catalina Conservancy and the Institute for Wildlife Studies actively began to educate the public about the Catalina Island fox.
Recent island-wide estimates put the fox population on Catalina Island at more than 400 animals.
For more information about the endemic Catalina Island fox, call the Catalina Island Conservancy's education department at (310) 510-0954 or visit www.catalinaconservancy.org.
This Learning Link was written by Rich Zanelli, Catalina Island Conservancy school programs specialist, and Frank Starkey, assistant director of conservation, and provided by the new Nature Center at Avalon Canyon, Avalon, CA.
