May 12, 2007 - 04:11:14 CDT
Three swift foxes hit on North Dakota highways this year have biologists wondering if the small carnivores are recolonizing in the state.Once numerous throughout most of North Dakota, swift foxes are believed to be extinct statewide.
"It looks like the animals are making their way back into the state," said Dorothy Fecske, furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. "Hopefully, they are not the only three that came up."
All of the foxes had been fitted with radio collars and were part of ongoing reintroduction projects in South Dakota, explained Kevin Honness, swift fox project leader in South Dakota for the Turner Endangered Species Fund.
The nonprofit group is doing the reintroduction work on its ranch near Fort Pierre, S.D. The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and the Badlands National Park also are doing reintroduction work.
One of the small foxes, a young male, was hit in early March near Fargo after coming north from the Lower Brule Indian Reservation project in south-central South Dakota, Honness said. It was transplanted from Kansas and had traveled about 250 miles.
"These long distance dispersals are something we have never seen before. The previous longest known dispersal distance was closer to 100 miles," Honness said. "What these events from North Dakota represent is that swift foxes are capable of moving tremendous distances."
The second swift fox was a less-than-a-year-old, native-born female that was hit on Interstate 94 near Hebron in early April after traveling north from the Turner group's Bad River Ranch near Fort Pierre.
The third and latest swift fox to be hit was reported last week near Glen Ulin, it was an adult male that also left from the Bad River Ranch.
That a male and the female were hit in the same general area is intriguing to Honness.
"We don't know if they were traveling together or if one followed the other. I suspect the female was first and the male followed her scent trail," Honness said. After the collars and carcasses are returned to South Dakota, he will do a necropsy to determine if the female had bred.
Researchers with the Turner group have been relocating and reintroducing swift foxes since 2002, said Honness, who has been involved with the project since its inception in 1999. The group focuses on nongame animals.
"If you can't shoot it or hook it, there's not a not of money for conservation efforts. That's how we get involved," he explained.
The three projects brought in 302 swift foxes from other states and released them in central South Dakota. Another 204 swift foxes have been documented as being born in South Dakota, Honness said. Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico hold the largest concentrations of swift foxes, he added.
Swift foxes prefer shortgrass prairie that's just under a foot tall.
"It's just at eye level, where they can detect predators. That may be why they were using the roads and getting hit," said Patrick Isakson, a nongame biologist for NDGFD. Coyotes are swift foxes' worst predators.
About the size of a house cat, swift foxes have a yellowish-tan coat and a black-tipped tail. Larger red foxes have a white tip on their tail. Swift foxes weigh less than 5 pounds.
Their diet consists of small mammals, and "at certain times of the year, small insects," said Isakson.
Swift Foxes once roamed throughout North Dakota except for the Red River Valley. The loss of native prairie and poisoning efforts aimed at wolves and coyotes led to their extirpation in the state, Isakson said.
Swift foxes are a level IIspecies of concern in North Dakota, and NDGFDlast surveyed for them in 2000.
"There was no trace," said Isakson. Researchers looked for swift fox tracks in ditches and focused on the southwestern part of the state.
"Their turning up in other areas is making us rethink our search protocols," said Fecske. NDGFD plans another survey this fall.
South Dakota researchers were notified by people who noticed the small carcasses, saw the collars and reported them.
"What those three animals do for us is to demonstrate the potential of expanding into North Dakota. Swift foxes would have the potential to travel into North Dakota and possibly establish themselves as individuals," said Honness.
(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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