Swift Fox

"Swift foxes blend in well with the dry grass where
they're found," says Moehrenschlager, a researcher in
Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research
Unit who for three years recently studied the species
near the U.S.-Canadian border. "If you come close to
them, they'll just sit there with their ears back flat
against their head and not move even their eyes." This
is obviously not typical canine behavior. "It seems to
be especially characteristic of swift foxes," he adds.

As it turns out, the swift fox (Vulpes velox) has a
number of traits that set it apart from its larger,
more numerous and better-known relatives in the dog
family, most notably the red fox and the coyote. These
are only now coming to light as biologists and
wildlife managers scramble to learn more about the
species, which is now a candidate for protection under
the Endangered Species Act.

Once plentiful in the midwestern prairies, the swift
fox has declined drastically in numbers in this
country during the past century and disappeared
completely in Canada--a victim of traps and poisons
intended for coyotes and wolves as well as the
shrinking of short-grass and mid-grass prairies. Today
in the United States swift foxes can be found in a
narrow north-south ribbon running from Montana to
Texas; in Canada, thanks to reintroduction efforts
that began in the 1980s, a small but stable population
now exists, officially classified as "endangered."

Habitat loss remains the chief threat to the swift
fox's survival. Scientists estimate that as much as 50
percent of the species' historical range has been
converted to cropland. As grasslands, which once
covered 40 percent of the United States, disappear,
the effects on native wildlife are devastating.

For the swift fox, however, new studies are zeroing in
on another threat: the intricate way in which this
unaggressive dog fits into the ruthless canine pecking
order of the midwestern prairies.

"If through transplantations and reintroductions we
put canid species together that can't coexist, it
could be a hopeless cause," says Eileen Dowd Stukel, a
South Dakota state wildlife biologist. Dowd Stukel co-
hairs the Swift Fox Conservation Team, a 10-state, 2-
province group that is spurring the new research.
"This is one canid no one seems to have anything
against. It would be a shame to let it disappear from the prairie."

For a carnivore, the swift fox causes far fewer
problems for humans than do the bigger wild canines,
which sometimes prey on livestock. A nocturnal hunter,
it feeds on mice, voles, crickets, ground squirrels
and other small prey, as well as berries and seeds. An
adult weighs only four to six pounds, about half as
much as the more common red fox. When its fur is wet,
a swift fox looks no bigger than a large house cat.

"Swift foxes seem naive and vulnerable," says Dowd
Stukel. "They're fairly easy to trap and juveniles
often end up as road kill." This has led some people
to label the creature "dumb fox," but far too little
is known about it to justify such a conclusion. In any
case, she says, "they're at times not very shy around
people, in contrast to red foxes."

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Swift Fox