Day 14: June 21st

We started the morning on a ferry that would take us to Santa Cruz Island of the Channel Islands. The morning boat ride was as we saw a pod of dolphins. We go to the island in after a half hour and immediatly saw the infamous endangered channel islands gray fox. It is a mystery as to how the fox orgingally got to the

island but it did evolve on the islands from the gray fox. It evolved into a smaller species due to the small amount of nutrients available compared to on the main land. The island had been through a lot. The delicate ecosystem had been significantly altered due to human inhabitants. There were originally 2,000 native people living on the island, its not understood if they had any major effect on the island. I'd like to think they got all their resources from the kelp forest. It is clearly known that the European settlers in the 1800's really started to put pressure on the island. They used the island to rais herds of sheep and cattle. Some of their pigs would escape and cause substantial damage to the plant life.

The feral pigs may have been the most damaging to the endemic fox species. The pigs provided food for the rare visitor, the golden eagle. The golden eagle began populating the island thanks to DDT. DDT is a chemical used in pesticides which find their way into the food chain. When bald eagles ingest DDT their eggs have thin shells. Bald eagles are normally very territorial and scare off golden eagles. Once they were gone the eagles made the islands home feeding on the piglets. They also preyed on the fox. Just recently all sheep herding has stopped taking place, pigs have been removed, golden eagles have been captured and relocated to give a chance for the bald eagles to reclaim the islands. The bald eagles took advantage of the removal of golden eagles, they have kept the golden eagles out and has allowed for the fox population to recover with a little help of captive breeding by biologists.