Summer Visit to Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park, CA

Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island

Take a 1-Minute escape to California's Channel Islands and experience the combination of land and sea that makes Channel Islands National Park a true California get away.



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Santa Cruz Island is home to a variety of plants and animals found no where else in the world. 

The Santa Cruz Island fox (Urocyon litteralis santacruzae) is an endangered species and is successfully recovering from near extinction.

Plants are also special here. The candleholder dudleya (Dudleya candelabrum) is found only on the northern Channel Islands. It is a kind of plant known commonly as a "live-forever." These succulents can stay dormant through extended periods of drought and then revive when rainfall returns. An excellent adaptation for survival on the Channel Islands.

See Santa Cruz Island in Spring

Get up close with a Channel Island fox
More about the endangered Channel Island fox

More California locations and wildlife

Meet a Channel Island Fox

The endangered Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is only found on six of California's Channel Islands and no where else in the world. To survive on islands with limited resources, the island fox is an opportunistic omnivore–he eats a wide variety of insects, small animals, and native fruit.

Watch this San Clemente Island fox (Urocyon littoralis clementae) hunting for beetles and beetle larva.

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Recent research on island fox diet reveals differences in primary foods between the six subspecies of island fox (more on island fox diet). Each island habitat offers different food resources and the various island fox subspecies have adapted to survive on what their island home has to offer. All island foxes, however, rely on insects.

Their keen sense of smell and hearing helps them locate even the tiniest prey, while their small teeth function like precision tweezers to pick up grubs and beetles.

Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park

See where island foxes live on Santa Cruz Island and San Nicolas Island. Find out more about Channel Island foxes and conservation efforts at islandfox.org.

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