They have been home to indigenous people for about a few thousand years and have been called the American galapagos. They have their own miniature versions of mainland species, including the Channel Island fox (which we were hoping to get a picture of - but no luck), the Channel Island scrub jay (which is some kind of must-see for bird-watchers apparently) and even a miniature mammoth which survived for a while after the last ice age. As recently as the 50s people were still ranching on the islands. But now all the islands are part of a national park. Apparently a big part of their job is trying to remove all the non-indigenous plants and animals and return the islands as much as possible to their pre-ranching state.
The Channel Islands fox nearly went extinct about 10 years ago because of the following chain of events: Bald eagles inhabited the Channel Islands, bald eagles only eat fish and tend to keep away golden eagles. In the 20s-50s, Long Beach harbor was the primary source of manufacturing DDT, of which plenty of excess and runoff wound up in San Pedro Bay. The excess sank, but wound up in all the fish around Southern CA. The bald eagles at the contanimated fish, which caused their egg shells to be too thin and their chicks didn't survive. So after a generation, no more bald eagles in CA. This allowed the golden eagles to move into the island, where they fed on baby pigs and goats and left over meat from all the animals that were being ranched there. By the late 80s, the park service moved all the non-native ranch animals off the park in an effort to restore the islands' native species. So now the golden eagles had nothing to eat, and apparently developed a taste for the cat-sized channel island fox.
The Channel Islands Fox (not my pic)
According to our parks service guide on the little 1-hour tour we took - the fox had been living a "rather cavalier lifestyle" as the top land predator on the islands. Until the eagles nearly wiped them all out. So the park service captured the remaining foxes, captured and moved the golden eagles, and reintroduced bald eagles from Alaska, which are doing ok now that the DDT is no longer a problem in the So. Cal waters. Once the bald eagles were established (just a few years ago), the foxes were released back into the wild, where they are thriving. So that's the story of how the channel island fox almost was no more.
On the ferry ride out the Island, we saw a migrating grey whale about 100 yards away. On the way back our boat steered right through a "megapod" of 1000 or so dolphins. The captain slowed down the ferry to what I'd estimate is about half the dolphin's top speed, and we were treated to 10-15 minutes of dolphins cavorting and jumping around the boat, and surfing in the wake. It was an incredible experience.
