Swift Fox

Current Researchers

Axel Moehrenschlager

Reasons for Decline

Swift foxes, once common throughout North America were extinct in Canada by 1938. In 1983, federal and provincial government agencies joined forces with universities and conservation organization, such as the Calgary Zoo, to launch a Canadian swift fox conservation breeding reintroduction program. By the winter of 1996/1997, approximately 280 wild foxes had been re-established in two small Canadian sub-populations.

During the early part of the twentieth century, the fur trade, poisoning of rodent species by landowners, cultivation of native prairies for agriculture and changes in the composition of the native prairie ecosystem were the primary causes of swift fox decline. Between 1853 and 1877, the Hudson’s Bay Company traded a total of 117,025 swift foxes (Rand, 1948). Today, loss of habitat and fragmentation are seen as two of the main threats to reintroduced swift fox populations.                                                                                                                                          Foxes prefer dry, flat grassland habitat, free from any human disturbance or agriculture and industrial development. They completely avoid any seeded or tilled cropland and therefore are confined to the shrinking natural prairie. This natural habitat is also becoming increasingly fragmented by the construction of roads and well sites. These manmade barriers act to isolate the different fox groups and disrupt their natural dispersal patterns.

Diseases such as canine distemper transferred from other canine species such as the coyote, wolf and domesticated dog are also seen as a threat to swift fox populations.

What We're Doing

Despite their increasing numbers, swift foxes remain endangered in Canada. The CCR is conducting important health, genetic and habitat research to help ensure swift foxes are here to stay on Canada’s prairies. In partnership with stakeholders at all levels, we are also developing conservation actions and legal policies to protect swift foxes.                                                                                                                       Currently, researchers at CCR are conducting studies to determine whether swift foxes are attracted to, or avoid, oil and gas development in Southern Saskatchewan. They are also using motion-sensor cameras to validate a previously developed GIS habitat model across a 10,000km2 area of heterogeneous prairie habitat in Southwestern Saskatchewan and Southeastern Alberta. This validation will determine the predictive power of the 2005/2006 GIS habitat model and its reliability as a landscape conservation tool for swift foxes.

What We've Done

At the request of the Canadian swift fox recovery team, the Centre for Conservation Research has been conducting extensive swift fox population censuses every five years to monitor the foxes' progress. Results from the 2000/2001 and the 2005/2006 international censuses show that this has been the most successful recovery of a nationally extinct carnivore in the world!

Past Research Initiatives Include:

• A GIS habitat analysis to determine which habitats need to be protected in both Canada and Montana
• Assessing disease prevalence in swift foxes and other canids that live in the same area such as coyotes, red foxes and domestic dogs
• Developing population models to predict the impact of threats on swift fox populations
• Evaluating genetic census techniques to develop less intrusive and more efficient population census methods (a partnership with a University of Manitoba MSc project)
• Publication of data on swift fox radio-collaring, pipeline effects on swift foxes, and the comparative interactions of swift and kit foxes with coyotes in Canada and Mexico
• In collaboration with the National Swift Fox Recovery Team, a Recovery Strategy for the species is being compiled that will satisfy the requirements of Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA).

References