California found just 15 foxes left on one island, teetering on the brink of total extinction. Wildlife rescuers scrambled to save the species from disappearing forever, launching an urgent breeding program in the remote wilderness.
In 1994, approximately 450 island foxes lived on San Miguel Island off the California coast. Five years later, only 15 remained. Graduate student Gary Roemer began finding fox carcasses on neighboring Santa Cruz Island during his research there. Over two years, he found 21 dead foxes, 19 of them with similar wounds indicating predation from above.The island fox, about the size of a house cat, live…