Island Fox
Catalina Island, California | 2025
A Catalina Island fox (Urocyon littoralis catalinae) gazes back at the camera before scurrying away. These cute little foxes are endemic to Catalina Island off the coast of southern California and exist nowhere else in the world. They are smaller than mainland foxes, about the size of house cat. In late 1999, an outbreak of distemper virus caused the fox population to plummet to just 100 animals, and the fox was declared an endangered sub-species in 2004. After 15 years of work by wildlife biologists, the population has rebounded to over 1,800 foxes, one of the fastest recoveries ever of an endangered species (source). Photo © copyright by Jack Brauer.