To: The Save the California Channel Island Fox Foundation Grant Program
To Whom It May Concern:
I am proposing to study how the extinction of the California Channel Island Fox would affect the plant community as well as the few other communities to which this creature feeds. This research is to be conducted on Santa Rosa Island, just off the coast of California. This research can be quite complicating because although the extinction of the Island Fox could possibly affect those communities to which it feeds, it can also affect the communities of mammals who feed on the Island Fox. One such animal is the Golden Eagle, which predominantly feed on the Island Fox and is one cause of their endangered status. The loss of the Island Fox can have a huge impact on the vegetation and plant life on these islands which would affect the beauty to which these islands are known. The loss of the Island Fox can also have a negative affect towards the ecological growth of these islands, which are mostly controlled by the federal government or the Catalina Island Conservancy. Losing this fox could cause the federal government or conservationists to loose funding for the conservation of other such endangered species.
The California Channel Island Fox are found on all four islands; Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel Island. The Island Fox feeds on fruits, insects, birds, eggs, crabs, lizards and smaller mammals such as the mouse. These foxes are historically not intimidated by humans and rarely have and predators.
Conservation is huge among these four islands. Because all of these islands are controlled by either the government or a conservation agency there are many programs underway to protect endangered species that live on these islands. There are captive breeding grounds on all four islands for the Island Foxes.
The specific objective of this experiment is to examine the effect of the island foxes removal on plant health and plant density. I hypothesize that removal of the island fox will affect mouse population and by this also affecting plant life to which these mice feed. To test this hypothesis I have chosen to remove foxes from a specific area at the Santa Rosa conservatory and breeding grounds and compare the plant health of that area to one in which the foxes are currently living.
I have chosen four 10 acre enclosures which will not be completely covered so sun light and other weather conditions will be the same for all four. These four areas will be completely fenced so as to not let the foxes out of certain areas. There are currently 46 foxes in captive breeding in Santa Rosa. There are a similar number of foxes on the other three islands making this experiment helpful in providing information for those islands as well. I will take these 46 and split them in two of the four testing areas, thus, two of the enclosures will have a 23 fox population (the control) and two will not. I will count the amount of plant life in each enclosure to measure plant density- the dependent variable. This experiment will last for 3 months giving each area enough time to adjust to its new population.
The most important standardized variables in this experiment are factors that could affect the plant density, plant health, and mouse population. These include other mouse eating prey, sunlight, and water quality. When setting up these four enclosures I will make sure that these fenced in enclosures are not interfering with these variables.
In the enclosures with the Island Fox, I predict that the density of plant life will not change. However, in the enclosures without the foxes I predict that the density of plant life will decrease. My reasoning for this is that; these foxes feed on mice therefore protecting the plants from destruction and harm; the areas without the fox will increase the mouse population in turn disturbing the growth of the plant populations.
If my hypotheses are true, this study can provide an ample amount of information concerning the wellbeing of these islands, not only an incentive for preserving the island fox but to help these islands flourish.
Thank you for considering my proposal.
Sincerely,
Kendra Woodward
References:
Island Fox. Wikipedia Online Dictionary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Fox . Downloaded May 1, 2007.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/22781/summ . Downloaded May 1, 2007.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am proposing to study how the extinction of the California Channel Island Fox would affect the plant community as well as the few other communities to which this creature feeds. This research is to be conducted on Santa Rosa Island, just off the coast of California. This research can be quite complicating because although the extinction of the Island Fox could possibly affect those communities to which it feeds, it can also affect the communities of mammals who feed on the Island Fox. One such animal is the Golden Eagle, which predominantly feed on the Island Fox and is one cause of their endangered status. The loss of the Island Fox can have a huge impact on the vegetation and plant life on these islands which would affect the beauty to which these islands are known. The loss of the Island Fox can also have a negative affect towards the ecological growth of these islands, which are mostly controlled by the federal government or the Catalina Island Conservancy. Losing this fox could cause the federal government or conservationists to loose funding for the conservation of other such endangered species.
The California Channel Island Fox are found on all four islands; Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel Island. The Island Fox feeds on fruits, insects, birds, eggs, crabs, lizards and smaller mammals such as the mouse. These foxes are historically not intimidated by humans and rarely have and predators.
Conservation is huge among these four islands. Because all of these islands are controlled by either the government or a conservation agency there are many programs underway to protect endangered species that live on these islands. There are captive breeding grounds on all four islands for the Island Foxes.
The specific objective of this experiment is to examine the effect of the island foxes removal on plant health and plant density. I hypothesize that removal of the island fox will affect mouse population and by this also affecting plant life to which these mice feed. To test this hypothesis I have chosen to remove foxes from a specific area at the Santa Rosa conservatory and breeding grounds and compare the plant health of that area to one in which the foxes are currently living.
I have chosen four 10 acre enclosures which will not be completely covered so sun light and other weather conditions will be the same for all four. These four areas will be completely fenced so as to not let the foxes out of certain areas. There are currently 46 foxes in captive breeding in Santa Rosa. There are a similar number of foxes on the other three islands making this experiment helpful in providing information for those islands as well. I will take these 46 and split them in two of the four testing areas, thus, two of the enclosures will have a 23 fox population (the control) and two will not. I will count the amount of plant life in each enclosure to measure plant density- the dependent variable. This experiment will last for 3 months giving each area enough time to adjust to its new population.
The most important standardized variables in this experiment are factors that could affect the plant density, plant health, and mouse population. These include other mouse eating prey, sunlight, and water quality. When setting up these four enclosures I will make sure that these fenced in enclosures are not interfering with these variables.
In the enclosures with the Island Fox, I predict that the density of plant life will not change. However, in the enclosures without the foxes I predict that the density of plant life will decrease. My reasoning for this is that; these foxes feed on mice therefore protecting the plants from destruction and harm; the areas without the fox will increase the mouse population in turn disturbing the growth of the plant populations.
If my hypotheses are true, this study can provide an ample amount of information concerning the wellbeing of these islands, not only an incentive for preserving the island fox but to help these islands flourish.
Thank you for considering my proposal.
Sincerely,
Kendra Woodward
References:
Island Fox. Wikipedia Online Dictionary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Fox . Downloaded May 1, 2007.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/22781/summ . Downloaded May 1, 2007.
