New parasite discovered amid decline of California's unique Channel Island fox

In the 1990s, the San Miguel Island fox nearly went extinct, with numbers dropping to just 15. A recovery program increased their population by 2010, but from 2014 to 2018, it fell to 30% of its peak due to a new acanthocephalan parasite, exacerbated by a prolonged drought. A research effort employed morphological and molecular methods, alongside necropsy records, to identify the parasite and assess its health impacts on the foxes.

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