Crook Point Overlook

Due to unexploded ordnance, visitors must be accompanied by a ranger to this location. Entering this area without a ranger is a violation of federal law. Crook Point overlook provides striking views of the islands' southeast coast. The hike out also took you through an area that was once a captive breeding facility that played a major role in recovering the island fox from the brink of extinction. The island fox only lives on six of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of southern California--they are found nowhere else on Earth. Each island population is recognized as a separate endemic or unique subspecies. The island fox, a descendant of the mainland gray fox, is the largest of the Channel Islands' native mammals, but one of the smallest canid species in the world. Although foxes have always existed at low population sizes, four island fox subspecies underwent catastrophic declines in the 1990s. On San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands at Channel Islands National Park, the decline was attributed to predation by golden eagles. The presence of non-native ungulates as a food source in addition to the DDT-caused decline of bald eagles, a natural competitor, facilitated the establishment of golden eagles as resident breeders on the islands. By 2000, predation on island foxes resulted in population declines to 15 individuals on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands, and less than 80 on Santa Cruz Island. In 2004, each of the park's island fox subspecies were federally listed as endangered. In 1999, Channel Islands National Park began an island fox recovery program that included captive breeding and reintroduction of foxes, removal of resident golden eagles, re-establishment of bald eagles, and removal of non-native ungulates. This coordinated, organized and highly focused strategy was able to reverse the certain extinction of an endangered population. Today, the population has recovered within the park. Population trend and annual survival are currently monitored to ensure that recovery continues and future threats to the park's island fox subspecies are identified. The Captive Breeding Program Captive breeding was a necessary - and ultimately successful - recovery action for island foxes, and it also provided an opportunity to study island fox reproductive biology, which was previously unknown. When foxes were first brought into captivity on San Miguel Island just before the 2000 breeding season, mated pairs were established by placing together males and females that appeared likely to have been paired in the wild, based on information available at capture. Because there were more females than males, some females were housed together. In subsequent years as pups were born and reached maturity, they were assigned mates based on a computer program designed to prevent inbreeding in small populations, such as the fox, and maximize genetic heterozygosity (lack of similarity). The success of the island fox breeding program is evident in data given