Swift foxes flourish on Blackfeet Reservation

Named for its speediness, the swift fox is one of North America's smallest canines, weighing an average of five pounds

February 24, 1999
Web posted at: 1:38 p.m. EST (1838 GMT)

Thirty swift foxes, reintroduced last summer to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana, are doing well, according to Defenders of Wildlife.

The foxes have suffered few losses and are quickly becoming established, according to the group. Weekly monitoring indicates extensive fox activity in the areas in which they were released.

The foxes were returned to the region in hopes of restoring a self-sustaining population, under a partnership between Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation organization; the Cochrane Ecological Institute, the world's only captive breeding facility for swift fox; and the Blackfeet Nation.

CEI provided the 30 juvenile foxes, the Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Department provided the site and assisted with the release, while Defenders of Wildlife coordinated the project and contributed funding through a grant from the Bradley Fund of the Sand County Foundation for the Environment.

The swift fox was once common on the Blackfeet Reservation and throughout Montana. In 1806, Lewis and Clark reported swift foxes at the confluence of the Two Medicine and Marias rivers. However the swift fox vanished there 50 years ago. The swift fox was last seen in Montana in 1918 and was declared extinct in the state in 1969.

The animal's disappearance has been traced to incidental poisoning by bait set out for wolves and coyotes, trapping, habitat loss to agriculture and loss of food sources like prairie dogs and ground squirrels as part of federal eradication campaigns.

Named for its speediness, the swift fox is one of North America's smallest canines, weighing an average of five pounds and measuring 12 inches in height and 31 inches in length. It has a broader skull, shorter ears, shorter tail and slightly larger body than its cousin the kit fox. The swift fox is an opportunistic predator that feeds on ground squirrels and other small mammals, grasshoppers and berries.

In 1992, a petition was submitted to protect the swift fox under the Endangered Species Act. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that listing was "warranted but precluded." A Swift Fox Conservation Team, composed of state and federal officials, was established. In 1997 the team released a "Conservation Assessment and Conservation Strategy for Swift Fox in the United States," listing a number of prescriptions for recovery. Among the remedies proposed was "expanding the distribution of swift fox where ecologically and politically feasible."

Recently a few swift fox returned naturally to Montana from populations in Grassland National Park in Saskatchewan, Canada, but their future is far from secure.

"Our hope is to reintroduce foxes for a three-year period until they become well established on the Blackfeet Reservation," says Minette Johnson, program associate for Defenders of Wildlife. "The Blackfeet Reservation is the best release site we've ever had available," adds Clio Smeeton, president of CEI. To date only two animals have died, both hit by automobiles. Examination of the body of the fox killed most recently confirmed that it was well fed and would have most likely survived through the winter.

For more information, contact Jesal Mehta, Defenders of Wildlife, (202)682-9400, ext. 284.

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