India, Oct. 16 -- Santa Rosa Island's island fox population fell from an estimated 1,780 in 1994 to just 15 in the late 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. By 2015, the population had rebounded to about 1,200 following a coordinated conservation effort.

In 2016, three island fox subspecies from San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands were removed from the Endangered Species Act list, in what the Interior Department described as the fastest recovery of any mammal listed under the law. The crisis had affected four of California's Channel Islands, with fox populations declining by more than 90% in some locations. On San Miguel Island, numbers fell from about 450 to just 15, while Santa Cruz Island's population dro...