SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Two subspecies of a fox that lives only on an island chain off the Southern California coast should be removed from the endangered species list because of a dramatic increase in population during at least the past decade, a scientific group dedicated to fox recovery said Tuesday.

The island fox is found on six of the eight Channel Islands, but its population plummeted by 95 percent in the 1990s, which led to the development of the Island Fox Conservation Working Group. In 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed four of the six subspecies of the fox as endangered.