Island Fox
“I don't have many chances to travel far away, so I guess I'm kinda yearning for the outside world? I wonder how it is outside... I wanna see it. Right then! How about we go together? Can I come with you? That's fine, right? Hey!?”
—Island Fox's introduction
| Island Fox | |||
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| シマハイイロギツネ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| Romaji | Shimahaiirogitsune
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| Debut | KemoV | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Urocyon littoralis
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| Distribution | Channel Islands
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| Diet | Omnivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | 4-6 years
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| Read More | Island fox
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| Conservation | 
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| Island Fox | Season 2 | Festival | KF3 | KemoV | Gallery |
Island Fox is a type of Friend that premiered in the third official Kemono Friends guidebook. She has also debuted as a member of KemoV, the Kemono Friends virtual Youtuber group.
Appearance
Island Fox has orange eyes and multicoloured hair - grey in the front with both darker and lighter markings, with white side bangs, orange in the back, and grey twintails. Her twintails are tied with two black ribbons. Her animal ears are orange with dark colour along the border. She wears an off-white neckerchief with two V-shaped lines, one orange and the other grey. Her double-breasted coat is a light red colour, with furry white cuffs. She wears a black undershirt and white gloves. Her skirt is grey, with primarily orange tights that have grey at the top and fade to white at the bottom. Her shoes are white. Her animal tail is grey, with an orange underside and a black tip.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
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In Real Life
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The island fox is descended from Gray Fox in the mainland. Its small size is a result of insular dwarfism, a form of allopatric speciation. It is one of the smallest canid species in the world but the largest native mammals on the Channel Islands'. Typically, the head-and-body length is 48 to 50 cm, shoulder height 12 to 15 cm, and the tail is 11 to 29 cm long. The island fox weighs between 1 and 2.8 kg; the male is always larger than the female. There are six subspecies, each native to a specific Channel Island and evolved independently.
The island fox has gray fur on its head, a ruddy red coloring on its sides, white fur on its belly, throat and the lower half of its face, and a black stripe on the dorsal surface of its tail.
Its preferred habitat is complex layer vegetation with a high density of woody, perennially fruiting shrubs. The fox lives in all of the island biomes including temperate forest, temperate grassland and chaparral, with no island supporting more than 1,000 foxes. Its diet includes fruits, insects, birds, eggs, crabs, lizards, and small mammals, including deer mice. The fox tends to be solitary.
It is generally nocturnal, albeit with peaks of activity at dawn and dusk. Activity also fluctuates with the season; it is more active during the day in summer than it is in winter.
The island fox communicates using auditory, olfactory and visual signals. A dominant fox uses vocalizations, staring, and ear flattening to cause another fox to submit. Signs of dominance and submission are visual, such as facial expression and body posture. The fox is not intimidated by humans, although at first may show aggression. It is quite easy to tame and is generally docile.
Island fox was once listed as critically endangered but has recovered from incredible conservation efforts. Its populations declined during the 1990s, one subpopulation even fell from 1500 adults to only 14. It was discovered that predation of Golden Eagle was the cause of the high mortality rates. The golden eagles were drawn to the Islands to replace the Bald Eagle which feeds on fish and had suffered population decline due to DDT exposure in the 1950s. In the early 1990s, the National Park Service exterminated all the feral pigs on Santa Rosa to remove one of the food sources of the golden eagles in an idea that the pigs drew the eagles to the island. It however, put higher predation pressure to the island fox which is poorly adapted to predation. In 1999, the park service and the Nature Conservancy, joint owners of Santa Cruz, began relocation of all the gold eagles. With the last golden eagles leaving the islands, bald eagles were reintroduced back to the islands to deter golden eagles from coming back. Together with projects such as breeding programs in the mainland, the populations of Santa Cruz island foxes, San Miguel island foxes, and Santa Rosa island foxes have since dramatically rebounded. Because the island fox is geographically isolated, it is still vulnerable to parasites and diseases brought from visitors outside.
Trivia
- Island foxes played an important role in the spiritual lives of native Channel Islanders.
References
- The Santa Barbara Zoo in California aided recovery of Island Fox populations
- Island Fox, the National Park Service of the US.
- "Last of Golden Eagles Leave Island", LA Times 2006.