Navy’s Red Foxes Must Go, but Where? : Endangered Birds Get Priority at Seal Beach Wildlife Refuge

Red foxes, which are preying on dwindling populations of two endangered bird species at a Seal Beach wildlife refuge, will be trapped and sent to zoos or released to the wild as soon as a relocation plan is devised, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman said Monday.

However, a spokesman for the animal protection group charged with finding the foxes new homes said so far it has had little luck because other states already have large populations of red foxes and are reluctant to import any more.

Bob Fields, the Navy’s California refuge manager, said padded traps will be set to catch the 50 to 60 foxes at the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, a 1,100-acre salt marsh on the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

The refuge is a nesting habitat for migrating least terns and a permanent population of light-footed clapper rails, but local populations of the endangered birds have dwindled to “critically low” numbers since red foxes entered the area several years ago, he said.

While no date has been set to begin, Fields said he hopes the first traps can be set “within a few weeks, “ with all the foxes removed before mating season begins next spring for the birds and the foxes.

“We’ve already lost another year,” he said, referring to the recent birth of foxes. “We’ll try to get on as best as we can. This is going to take several months. It’s not an easy task. This can be time-consuming and difficult.”

An environmental assessment of the fox problem, released by the Wildlife Service two months ago, suggested trapping the predators, and if that failed, shooting them. The plan prompted more than two dozen letters, most of which sympathized with the need to remove the foxes, Fields said. But several writers were opposed to the use of unpadded steel traps or the killing of any foxes, he said.

Padded traps will be used to reduce the risk of injury to the foxes so that they can be handed over to zoos or released to the wild, Fields said.

The letters prompted the Wildlife Service to work with the Sacramento-based Animal Protection Institute, which will quarantine the foxes and then try to find new natural habitats in other states for the foxes.

Although California has a native Sierra red fox, the red fox of lower elevations is of unknown origin and cannot be released within the state, Fields explained.

But finding new homes is a difficult task because other states are not eager to accept the misplaced foxes, said Scott Vorhees, humane education coordinator for the Animal Protection Institute. The common red fox is native to Midwestern states, where it preys on small rodents and fowl, but those states have indicated that they already have “populations too high, or that they’re worried about diseases being introduced,” he said.

“We’re running into trouble” finding new natural habitats for the foxes, Vorhees said. According to the Wildlife Service, if the foxes cannot be released to the wild, officials will attempt to place them in zoos. Homes in zoos for about 15 foxes already have been lined up, but additional placement might be difficult because the red fox is “not that attractive” to zoos, Fields said.

The Last Resort

Any trapped foxes which cannot be relocated to the wild or to zoos will be “killed in a humane manner,” that is, by lethal injection, Fields said, adding that those animals which elude the traps will be shot “as a last resort.

In 1980, 43 pairs of nesting least terns were counted at the Seal Beach refuge, and they grew to 45 pairs in 1981, Fields said. In 1982, the foxes somehow were introduced to the nesting grounds, and the birds were reduced to 17 pairs, with only one offspring. The following year the numbers fell to four pairs that reared two young, he said.

By 1984, researchers doubted whether any nesting would occur because of the predators, Fields added. An electric fence was installed, but the foxes found a way to breach it, he said. In 1985, a colony of 20 to 26 tern pairs reared three young.

Only seven nests of light-footed clapper rails were found in 1985, he said.

Field said he did not know how much the wildlife service will have to spend to trap the foxes because the cost will depend on what it takes to remove them. The wildlife agency either will use the services of the “predator and animal damage control” division of the Department of Agriculture or will contract with a private trapper, he said.

Killing the Problem

“It just has to be done. If one (attempt) doesn’t work, the cost goes up,” he said.

Animal Protection Institute’s Vorhees said his group has no quarrel with the wildlife service’s goal of protecting the endangered birds but wants to do all it can to prevent the killing of the red foxes, which “were introduced to that area in some way, either accidentally or purposely, and have survived until now.”

“It’s really a matter of priorities,” Fields said of the plan to trap foxes. “Two birds we’re really trying to protect are endangered because of loss of habitat, and if we’re going to keep them on the face of the earth, it will take whatever measures we can put in place to do it. . . .

“With these two birds, we’re dealing with an animal (the fox) that is non-native, that is oppressing, almost eliminating, the birds. The endangered species have higher priority than the non-native. The two can’t coexist in that area. That just isn’t possible. Somebody’s going to have to go.”