Tribes Reintroduce Swift Fox to Northern Montana's Fort Belknap Reservation (Smithsonian)
By Alex Fox
smithsonianmag.com
October 13, 2020
Swift foxes have been absent from the shortgrass prairie of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in northern Montana for more than half a century. But last month, that changed when the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes of Fort Belknap reintroduced 27 swift foxes to the reservation, restoring a piece of the Great Plains ecosystem and a part of the tribes’ natural heritage.
For the tribes of Fort Belknap, restoring and maintaining their natural environment has been a priority for decades. The tribes reintroduced buffalo to the reservation’s 675,147 acres of prairie in the 1970s and the herd, centered around a 22,000-acre plot at Snake Butte, is now close to 800 strong. Fort Belknap also brought back black-footed ferrets via reintroductions in the 1990s and early 2000s.
But these reintroductions aren’t just about the environment, says Mike “Gopher” Fox, who is part of the Fort Belknap Tribal Council and a member of the Gros Ventre tribe.
“We don’t look at animals as just four legged or winged, we look at them as family,” says Fox. “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 swift fox weighs just around five pounds and is the smallest wild canine in North America. The animals occupy one main den and several sattelite dens year-round, which they sometimes annex from local prairie dog colonies. The foxes use these burrows and blistering speed—bursts of up to 40 miles-per-hour—to capture prey and escape their main predator, the coyote.
***
more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/tribes-reintroduce-swift-fox-northern-montanas-fort-belknap-reservation-180976001/