Astonishingly, the world’s smallest fox has rebounded from sure extinction in just a decade.
Within the past few weeks, numbers have risen to a level where the house cat sized Santa Cruz Island fox can be removed from the Endangered Species List. This speedy recovery happens to be the fastest recovery of any mammal under the Endangered Species Act since it started.
The decline, from 1,500 to fewer than 100, was attributed to the introduction of wild pigs into the area. But a group of organisations including The Nature Conservancy, the National Park Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the Institute for Wildland Studies, launched the “Island Fox Recovery Program”, an “intensive, science-based” effort to increase the numbers of the little Fox, and prevent it going extinct.
The organisations decided to bring them into captivity in 2000, in small-ish groups of 20, in the hope that they will breed in captivity. They were placed into a controlled environment which closely mimicked their natural habitat, so they would feel as comfortable and safe as possible.
After six seasons, 85 pups were born and released into the wild. However, the removal of the feral pigs, which organisers say was a key component of the restoration programme, was not supported by everyone.
With the pigs gone, the fox survival rate increased to 90 per cent and the population rose to 2,150 in 2015.
