Current Events Lesson Plan: September 8-14, 2016
Current Event: Saving California’s Island Fox
Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the rare island fox of California’s Channel Islands has made the quickest recovery yet for a North American mammal in the history of the Endangered Species Act. In 2000, only 55 island foxes lived on Santa Cruz Island, and another 15 of the animals lived on the chain’s two northern islands. In 2004, the island fox was formally listed as endangered and was given a 50 percent chance of becoming extinct within a decade. An intense recovery program, however, achieved the difficult feat of recovering the species. The conservation efforts restored the Channel Islands’ fox population to more than 4,100, and the animal was removed from endangered species protection in August 2016. Island foxes live on only six of the eight Channel Islands off the southern California coast. The only carnivore unique to California, island foxes feed on beetles, crickets, earwigs, mice, and the occasional crab. They also eat the fruits of cactus, manzanita, saltbush, and other plants.
Objective:
Foxes are doglike animals with a bushy tail and a sharp snout. Foxes belong to the same family of animals as coyotes, dogs, jackals, and wolves. True foxes include the Arctic fox, the gray fox, and the red fox. Foxes and foxlike animals live throughout the world, except in Antarctica and Southeast Asia and on some islands. Most foxes are about the same size. Gray foxes and red foxes, the most common kinds in the United States and Canada, grow from 23 to 27 inches (58 to 69 centimeters) long. The tail measures an additional 14 to 16 inches (36 to 41 centimeters). Most of these animals weigh from 8 to 11 pounds (3.6 to 5 kilograms). Foxes eat almost any animal they can catch easily, especially mice and other kinds of rodents. They also hunt birds, frogs, insects, lizards, and rabbits. In addition, foxes eat many kinds of fruit and the remains of dead animals. Foxes hunt mostly at night and remain active the year around. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore foxes and other animals.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students to name some endangered animals. (Students might name American crocodiles, Asiatic lions, blue whales, California condors, cheetahs, giant pandas, orangutans, rhinoceroses, sea turtles, tigers.)
2. Ask your students what they know about California. (Students might say that it is the most populous state in the United States; Los Angeles is its largest city and Sacramento is its capital; it is the home of Hollywood and Disneyland; the San Andreas Fault and most of Death Valley are also in the state; a gold rush took place in the state in the late 1840’s.)
3. Ask your students to debate “Scientists should clone animals that are endangered.”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Animal Extinctions Since 1600 timeline.