Foxes: Island Fox Information

The island fox is known by several names: the coast fox, the short tailed fox, the island gray fox, the Channel Island fox, the Channel Island gray fox, the California Channel Island fox and the insular gray fox. They are native to six of the eight Channel Islands in California. Considered the smallest species of fox in the US, each island fox is unique to the island it inhabits.

The island fox has six subspecies, four of which are endangered. They are separately located on San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Cruz Island, San Nicolas Island, Santa Catalina Island and San Clemente Island. Each of the subspecies has different number of vertebrae in their tails.

The island fox is about the size of a house cat. Males are larger that the female. They have fur on their head and are identified by the red color on their side, white belly and throat and lower half of face, and a black stripe on the surface of their tail. The island fox prefers woods, fruit shrubs, forests and grasslands. They eat fruits, insects, birds, eggs, crabs, lizards and small mammals including the deer mouse. They move by themselves instead of in packs, are not intimidated by humans, and are easy to tame. The island fox uses vocalizations like staring and ear flattening to cause another fox to submit. Currently captive fox breeding on San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands are used to increase those foxes that are endangered.

Credits: Our thanks to Lani Powell, who researched and wrote our fox articles!