[CINC] Santa Rosa Island Update

[Trent Barnhart]

Greetings Fellow Naturalists,
 
    I just wanted to give a quick update on the Island Fox on SRI. I just got back from 12 days on the island working on a joint effort headed up by the Saint Louis Zoo with the NPS and supported by the Santa Barbara Zoo and Living Desert Museum. We are right in the middle/end of breeding season and there have already been 8 births between 4 females in the captive pens. Another 2 have been confirmed pregnant and could possibly give birth any day now. The techs are currently keeping track of around 40 collared adults with an estimated 70 wild adults. I believe about half of these individuals are females so we could expect to see lots of pups this year. This will be confirmed later this summer, when the pups are older and more active.
   We had some great days out on the island with clear skies, bright sun and NO wind, and of course we had the usual overcast windy island weather. We even had some winds up to 45 kph! Several elephant seals were seen through out the trip on the south side with a couple of harbor seals. The sea lions were out on the west side, but only heard from another volunteer. Many of the flowers were still in full bloom and made a great backdrop for the week. It was also opening weekend for IPCO boats to SRI so we also had several campers who enjoyed their guided hikes up to Torrey Pines and through Lobo Canyon. They also got a great presentation by Mike, an entomologist from SBMNH who was also out doing field work. 
   Hope everyone has had some great whale watchings over the last couple of days!
 
Trent
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