of of provisions (food) per night stayed. Passengers staying more than 2 nights are allowed an additional 10 lbs. of gear maximum per person, not including water. NO single item over 45 lbs. No Exceptions.Ħ0 lbs. Wildlife & Whale Watching | K-12 Education.East End Landing Cove – AI | K-12 Education.History -Stories -Facts of California Islands.Santa Barbara Island Hiking and Interpretive Trail Guides.San Miguel Island Hiking & Interpretive Trail Guides.

Santa Rosa Hiking Guide & Interpretive Guides.Santa Cruz Island Hiking Guide & Interpretive Guide.

Anacapa Island Hiking Guide & Interpretive Trail Guide.Driving Directions | Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard.Camping on Santa Cruz Island-Del Norte -Prisoners Harbor.Del Norte Campground | Prisoners Harbor – SCI.

East End Landing Cove – Anacapa Island Day Trip.

It may not appear so to relatively short-lived humans, but the islands are still changing and evolving, and what lives here in the future may be very different than what lives here today. Others, like the pygmy mammoth, the Santa Barbara Island song sparrow, and the giant deer mouse, evolved into unique island species before going extinct. Over time some have evolved into new species and are present today. Ongoing monitoring efforts are measuring changes in amphibian and reptile populations in response to the removal of pigs from Santa Cruz Island, the number of bats occupying maternity colonies on Santa Cruz, and mouse population dynamics as they relate to changes in fox numbers on San Miguel Island.Įach island has a unique complement of land animals, dependent in many ways on the size of the island. Eleven species of bats have been found on Santa Cruz, and the island is home to a rare maternity colony of Townsend's big-eared bats.Ĭurrent research focusing on terrestrial animals includes several studies on the island fox, one on the effects of deer mice on the recovery of vegetation communities, and one on the response of lizards to the removal of rats on Anacapa. Bats fill an important role, or 'niche,' by consuming large numbers of insects and pollinating some plants. It was only recently reintroduced.īats are not seen frequently, but they are common on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. The largest landbird native to the islands is the bald eagle. Like the island fox and deer mouse, the island scrub-jay has evolved into a unique (endemic) island species. Migratory birds, infrequent visitors, and rare species that arrive only after being blown off course during spring and summer migrations all add to the count. Not all birds that visit the islands stay all year, though. Navy outside park boundaries.īecause birds can fly, it is easier for them to reach the Channel Islands than it is for other land animals, and their species diversity is relatively high. For example, the island night lizard, a threatened species found nowhere else in the world, occurs on only three islands: one within the park and two owned by the U.S. None of these species is found on all of the islands, and no island supports all seven species. The number of native reptile and amphibian species is likewise low: only four lizards, one salamander, one frog, and two non-venomous snakes. The island foxes and deer mice have evolved into separate sub-species on each island, resulting in eight unique mammal species found only on the Channel Islands. The park's five islands only support four native land mammals: the island fox, the island deer mouse, the harvest mouse and the spotted skunk. With fewer distinct species, the ecology of the islands is simpler, though the relationships between species have more consequences, and the plants and animals that persist sometimes evolve to become unique from relatives on the mainland. That low species diversity reflects the challenges of a species arriving on the islands and then adapting to unique island conditions. In scientific terms, the 'species diversity' of terrestrial animals is relatively low. Compared to an area of the same size on the mainland, the Channel Islands are home to fewer species of land animals.

Channel islands santa cruz