U. littoralis Skull Replica measures 3.7 inches. U. littoralis Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in the USA. Known as Island Gray Fox.
U. littoralis or is significantly smaller than the gray fox and is probably the smallest fox in North America, averaging slightly smaller than the swift and kit foxes.
Typically, the head-and-body length is 19 to 19.5 in., shoulder height 4.5 to 6 in., and the tail is 4.5 to 11.5 in. long. This is due to the fact that the Island gray fox or U. littoralis generally has two fewer tail vertebrae than the gray fox.
U. littoralis weighs between 2.2 and 6.2 lb. The male is always larger than the female. The largest of the subspecies occurs on Santa Catalina Island and the smallest on Santa Cruz Island.
U. littoralis has gray fur on its head, a ruddy red coloring on its sides, white fur on its belly, throat and the lower half of its face, and a black stripe on the dorsal surface of its tail. In general the coat is darker and duller hued than that of the gray fox.
Urocyon littoralis molts once a year between August and November.
Before the first molt pups are woolly and have a generally darker coat than adult foxes. A brown phase, with the grey and black fur of the body replaced by a sandy brown and a deeper brown, may occur in the San Clemente Island and San Nicolas Island populations.
It is unclear if this is a true color phase, a change that occurs with age, or possibly a change that occurs because of interactions with Opuntia cactus spines that become embedded in the pelt.
U. littoralis typically forms monogamous breeding pairs, which are frequently seen together beginning in January and through the breeding season, from late February to early March.
The gestation period is 50 to 63 days. The female island gray fox gives birth in a den, a typical litter having one to five pups, with an average of two or three.
Pups are born in the spring and emerge from the den in early summer; the mother lactates for 7 to 9 weeks.
Sexual maturity is reached at 10 months, and the females usually breed within the first year. Island foxes live for 4–6 years in the wild and for up to 8 years in captivity.
The Island Fox eats fruits, insects, birds, eggs, land snails, crabs, lizards, amphibians, and small mammals, including deer mice.
The foxes threaten a population of the severely endangered San Clemente Island loggerhead shrike in residence on San Clemente Island.
The U. littoralis population has been negatively affected by trapping and removal or euthanasia of foxes by the United States Navy.
Since 2000, the Navy has employed different management strategies: trapping and holding foxes during the shrike breeding season, the installation of an electric fence system around shrike habitats, and the use of shock collar systems.
With the gradual recovery of the shrike population on San Clemente Island, the Navy no longer controls the foxes.
Because the Channel Islands are almost entirely owned and controlled by either the Catalina Island Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, or the federal government, the fox has a chance to receive the protection it needs, including constant supervision by interested officials without the ongoing threat of human encroachment on its habitat.
