A reintroduced swift fox outfitted with a GPS collar looks out across the shortgrass prairie of the Fort Belknap Reservation in northern Montana. The tribes on the reservation are bringing the species back to Fort Belknap after an absence of more than 50 years. Photo Credit: Wes Overvold
Animals USAThe Comeback of the Swift Fox (It Took 50 Years and Features GPS Collars )
For the first time in 50 years, 27 swift foxes return to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. This return marks the restoration of a missing piece of the Great Plains ecosystem and of the tribes’ natural heritage.
“We don’t look at animals as just four legged or winged, we look at them as family,” says Mike “Gopher” Fox, who is part of the Fort Belknap Tribal Council and a member of the Gros Ventre tribe. “For us it was like part of our family was missing all those years. Bringing the buffalo, the black-footed ferret and now the swift fox back, bringing those family members back home, connects us to our history with this land. It gives us a lot of pride as Natives.”
The cat-sized foxes, the smallest wild canine in North America which weighs only two kilos, were captured in Wyoming, given a health check and a GPS collar before being released. In the course of the five-year recovery, between 40 and 50 foxes will be released each year. “They will help keep their prey species in check,” says Kristy Bly, a conservation biologist with the World Wildlife Fund’s Northern Great Plains Program.
