Why is the Catalina Island fox listed as a federally endangered species?
The Catalina Island fox in one of five subspecies found on the Channel Islands. In 1999, researchers on Catalina Island detected a severe crash in the population of Catalina foxes, particularly on the East End of the Island. The cause of the demise of almost all of the East End foxes was traced to an outbreak of canine distemper virus, a lethal disease. The Conservancy, working with the Institute for Wildlife Studies, acted swiftly to vaccinate all remaining foxes on the Island, initiated a captive breeding program, using foxes from the West End, and moved a few individuals (properly protected with vaccines) from the West End to the East End. In order to aid the recovery process and to protect the remaining foxes, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Catalina Island fox an endangered subspecies, providing an additional level of protection to the threatened population. The population of foxes on the Island is on the rise, so much so that the captive breeding program was ended i
