Island Foxes

most days you can't see it from the mainland without a clear day santa cruz island appears astonishingly close on a small plane it's about a twenty minute flight from kemmerer rio the elusive beauty of the fog shrouded northern channel islands maybe what inspired them to mesh indians to call the nearest at them any more mirage the islands are a national park but most of the largest island santa cruz is owned by the nature conservancy great santa cruz is home to seventy species found only on the channel islands night of the plants you're listed as threatened n'dour endangered and five years ago the island's most beloved animal the channel island fox began to die off at alarming rates the experts were mystified many blame disease but as it turns out the culprit is paying is not lazy pink farm pigs that busy black or

brown and hairy feral pigs the nature conservancy's limos year explains as we tour the island in an old ge i really like this color as collateral for today there are about forty five hundred feral pigs roaming and riding around the island as we drive east along a high ridge there's a sparkling ocean view almost everywhere we look evidence of activity is everywhere too but if you walk around here oh a heavy duty rich are the pigs are uprooting many of the islands where plants and by tilling the soil they're also helping to spread nasty could defend our european transplant that's crowding out the islands native plants and says limoges year the peaks attracted a new predator to the island from the mainland sometime in the early nineties a political system and so and

so had this been for two hundred years ago what we still had bald eagles and before the things came naturally would've been driven off of buildings and even if they manage to stay it would not been able to make a living the population consists of animals to small planes spotted says that's not nearly enough to support bald eagles which primarily eat fish disappear from the channel islands in the nineteen fifties mainly because large amount of ddt were dumped along the southern california coast with no bald eagles to chase them away the golden eagles are feasting on tasty piglets and on the islands a dainty five pound foxes to save the foxes' the nature conservancy in the park service will have to return the island to a more natural state they're already trapping the golden eagles and flying them to northern california this summer they'll begin a seven year effort to capture and kill the feral

pigs those years says it will be a difficult and expensive path the experts tell us that you got to take eighty percent of a big population and a year before you have an impact on the number of animals he'll be problems later because they have so many babies and because they are rapidly heading west to the most rugged and remote side of the aisle and we see pigs all over the place pigs ranging on steep red hills black and white spotted piglets trotting as if on tiptoe i'll cross the road but we don't see any fox is the hundred or so remaining fox's here are all keeping out of eagles site to get a glimpse at a fox we travel last fifteen miles to san miguel island it's an unusually calm day on san miguel strong winds and tall waves usually buffett the stark i almost everything here is small and lies love song sparrows scoot along the ground island fox's baskin a rare spot of winter

sun sixteen of the island's seventeen remaining foxes are caged in a gully a short walk from the ranger station our guide is tim cronin a biologist with the channel islands national our desperate measures to make that is its neighboring animals and yet we did it but we knew it happened and it's it's something when you take a wild animal and then in a confined space for years who is part of a team the park service and other conservation groups have assembled to try to save the vanishing island fox is there any pigs or golden eagles living on san miguel the eagles from santa cruz like to go out to dinner here this is our green facilities or to be quiet as or three years or five pairs and five pens plus cinema and paired females in some cases are are paired together for social reasons for tony grey fox's resembled their ancestor the mainland gray fox appear tiny about the size of a house cat like many other animals isolated islands where food is often scarce

they've evolved into a smaller city see this is one of our parish from last year in which happened over female and any younger male and they did not produce a letter last year it might've and the fact that she was just too much older to watch two dominant over him couples we think that mice record on the sentry like mice which into an unfolding poor affable jason morris it's fun and it helped retain their wild foxes look like a dozing but they've got their have closed eyes on us we hang around too long or get too close they become agitated the mail it's a little champions once while they did not produce aisle there last year even though they were saying to get some serious brain behavior as well last year the first of the breeding program and fox's were paired up napkin and says only one couple produced illiterate to pops no one's brett on fox's before so we're learning as we go and there's a lot of investors a lot about the reproductive biology we

just have no clue about you in on how long they are estrus period is on sunday we have from last year looks like it may take a male in the pan for female to go on the streets and the heat which is highly unusual for candidates email fox's committee he'd only once a year and some species are only fertile for two or three days that's why the pair formation is so important as the mayor has a track that female exactly the female has we totally comfortable with that male an order for britain to actually take place when the female is of the lighting with such a small window of opportunity and so few fox is clear says the san miguel some species of the channel island fox could be lost it showed he says be listed as endangered under the endangered species act if ever spaces warrantless and maybe one that has seventeen animals on one island that's i were out one foot in the grave out here lessing would give us more funding right now that's the big softball we have to face with the us fish and wildlife service has stopped listing news be seized because it has been overwhelmed with expensive

lawsuit from environmental groups that claimed some follow the letter of the law when it does lisby sees as endangered the situation has tim cronin on edge he's worried about the animals future in the wild after years in captivity but mostly he's worried about their immediate survival he's got to get more into san diego fox's to reproduce and soon in the meantime his colleagues and santa cruz will have to get rid of the prolific pigs but they're to be foxes on the islands in the future for kpcc news i'm elsa set sail on san miguel island fb