Effects of aggression on breeding, affiliation, and reproductive success of Island foxes

Abstract

The island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is found on the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California (Figure 1). The National Park Service began a captive breeding program when three subspecies on the northern islands underwent dramatic population declines.For several years, video cameras were placed in fox pens to monitor fox pairs during the breeding season. From these videos, we assessed the relationship between aggressive, affiliative, and sexual behaviors of fox pairs on Santa Rosa. Previous research [2] has indicated that intra-pair aggression and incompatibility between male and female can decrease breeding success