A clear-eyed island fox is held by biologist Juliann Schamel before being checked out and vaccinated near a Channel Islands National Park campground on Santa Cruz Island.

Conservation efforts have brought back the Santa Cruz Island fox from the brink of extinction from 100 in 2000 to more than 1,300 today.

A Santa Cruz Island Fox roams the Scorpion Canyon area of Santa Cruz Island on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Each of the Channel Islands has its own subspecies that are found nowhere else in the world.

Invasive Argentine ants have plagued Santa Cruz Island for more than six decades displacing native species there. The Nature Conservancy – which manages a sizable chunk of the island – is ...