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11.8: Data Dive- Island Fox Populations

  • Page ID
    46709
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    Overview

    The Island Fox Conservation Working Group and Friends of the Island Fox nonprofit organization work hard to continually fund research and conservation projects to ensure the continued survival of the island fox. In addition, they also have educational outreach programs about the island fox as an endangered species to get public support. Every June the Island Fox Conservation Working Group meets to go over updates and plan for the future. In the 2019 meeting they discussed population trends across the six island fox subspecies and determine what those populations mean for the subspecies trajectory moving into the future. The results of this meeting can be seen in the graph and table below:

    Line graph showing population trends for the subspecies of island fox over a ten year period
    Figure \(\PageIndex{a}\): Population trends for subspecies of island fox (solid lines = large island subspecies, dashed lines = small island subspecies). Graph by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC) modified from data in 2019 Island Fox Status Update.

     

    Table \(\PageIndex{a}\): The 2019 designated statuses for the subspecies of island fox based on fox population and island size. Graph by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC) modified from data in 2019 Island Fox Status Update.

    Island Island Size Fox Population Status
    San Miguel Small 171 Concerned
    San Nicolas Small 400 Improved
    Santa Rosa Large 1862 Stable
    Santa Cruz Large 2462 Stable
    Santa Catalina Large 1571 Stable
    San Clemento Small 778 Stable

     

    Questions

    1. What is the independent (explanatory) variable and the dependent (response) variable?
    2. What question(s) are the authors trying to answer with this graph and table?
    3. Which subspecies of island fox do you think is the most stable? Why?
    4. Which year(s) were bad (meaning population estimates were very low) for most of the island fox subspecies?
    5. As noted in the graph, populations are estimated for each subspecies annually. Why do you think an annual estimation was chosen in the conservation plan instead of a longer time interval?

     

    Raw Data From Above Graph(s)

    Table \(\PageIndex{b}\): Raw data for population trends for subspecies of island fox (solid lines = large island subspecies, dashed lines = small island subspecies). Graph by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC) modified from data in 2019 Island Fox Status Update.

    Year San Clemento San Nicolas San Miguel Santa Rosa Santa Cruz Santa Catalina
    1994 1000 520 450 1800 1500 1300
    1996 810 550 100 400 1100 800
    1998 650 550 40 100 800 300
    2000 800 450 20 50 100 200
    2002 450 500 25 60 90 350
    2004 450 500 50 70 200 375
    2006 400 506 100 80 300 650
    2008 400 725 260 100 750 900
    2010 900 500 500 350 1050 1000
    2012 850 640 525 700 1800 1500
    2014 1200 263 510 900 2750 1750
    2016 860 329 329 1600 2400 1400
    2017 775 255 255 1800 3150 2050
    2018 790 400 200 1800 2500 1600

     

    Attribution

    Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC)


    This page titled 11.8: Data Dive- Island Fox Populations is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Melissa Ha and Rachel Schleiger (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) .

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