Every month – weather and schedules permitting – a Cessna T182 lifts off from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport and makes its way across the water to Catalina Island. Flying the plane is Randall Lipton, a longtime pilot who currently flies to help protect a grounded creature on the Island: Catalina Island foxes.
A Program Built on Precision and Partnership
The Catalina Island Conservancy has been monitoring the fox population with telemetry since 2000. That’s when foxes were relocated through a captive breeding program and released on the Island as part of a historic recovery effort that pulled the species back from the edge of extinction. Since July 2025, Randall has been an essential part of that effort, volunteering his plane, his time and his own fuel costs to help the Conservancy’s conservation team monitor what are known as “sentinel foxes” from the air.
Sentinel foxes are between one and three years old and have not yet been vaccinated. Because of their age and immune status, they are the most vulnerable members of the population and the most likely to be affected first if a new disease or threat should enter their habitat. Each sentinel fox wears a small VHF tracking collar with a unique frequency. When the fox is alive and moving, the collar emits a steady static signal. If the fox has died, that signal emits a faster beep, what the team calls a mortality signal.
The Conservancy currently has 60 collared foxes distributed across the Island. Finding them one by one from the ground takes two to three days by vehicle. From the air, it takes about two hours.
What a Flight Looks Like
Lipton’s dedication to the skies has earned him something few pilots ever see: his own named intersection in FAA airspace. That point in the sky, known as a fix, is called RNDAL. It’s a tribute to his work advocating for a safer flight path in the region. So, the Conservancy knew it could count on him for this very important task.
When Lipton lands at Airport in the Sky, the conservation team is waiting. The team mounts telemetry receivers to the plane and takes off. Pilots typically use a flight plan, but with telemetry, decision are made on the fly, literally. The nature of telemetry requires the team to make decisions on where to go in the air based on what they are hearing. This is what makes Randall’s skills and safety awareness so important, because unlike normal flights, he must listen to directions from the conservation team, look at the planes in the surrounding area, account for the terrain, and make split decisions on the best course of action.
From the air, the team works through a list of collared foxes, one by one, tuning to each animal’s unique frequency and listening carefully. Most signals come through as slow beeps, which is a good sign of life. A fast beep is likely to mean the collar has fallen off or the fox has died.
When a mortality signal is detected, the team moves quickly once back on the ground. Staff go out to locate the fox and determine first whether the animal actually died or simply slipped its collar, which can happen. If the fox has died, staff investigate the cause of death. That data matters beyond the individual animal. Mortality rates from the collared population, combined with the annual population estimate, are used to calculate the extinction threat level for the entire island fox population. It also provides insights into the current leading threats to the population. It’s painstaking, consequential work, and it begins with a signal from the sky.
The Man Behind the Flights
Lipton doesn’t do this for recognition, though the FAA fix bearing his name suggests the aviation community has taken note of his contributions. When asked why he commits his time and resources to this work, he keeps it characteristically light. “I don’t do it for any worthy cause,” he jokes. “I’m in it for the money.”
The reality, of course, is something else entirely. Lipton shows up monthly, collaborates with the Conservancy team on the flight plan and crosses the water from the mainland to help protect a species that nearly disappeared from the face of the earth a quarter century ago.
The island fox came back because enough people refused to give up on it. Lipton is one of those people and it takes a dedicated community of others like him to ensure endemic species thrive on Catalina.
To learn more about Catalina Island foxes and the Conservancy’s monitoring program, watch our documentary “Back from the Brink: The Resurgence of the Catalina Island Fox” on YouTube.
