The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

I noticed a Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks (FWP) pickup parked for several days in front of the Grande Villa where my wife and I live in Chinook. During the day the pickup was loaded with some sort of animal traps, some mornings a full load, other days most of the traps gone. Asking around I finally met up with Jules Nelson and Daniel Johnson, two FWP wildlife technicians gathering data for an ongoing census survey to determine the status of swift foxes in our area.

Jules Nelson, from Cincinnati, graduated with a degree in biology in 2020 and has worked as a technician collecting data for various agencies in several states. She explained that the typical career path for a job as a wildlife biologist begins with several years of "seasonal positions building one's experience and knowledge base." Jules will begin a new seasonal position at Trout Creek (Montana) in the spring. The other technician is Daniel Johnson, from Salt Lake City, who has plans to go on to graduate school or find a position with Utah's state wildlife agency. Here's some of what I learned about swift fox, the work of the technicians and the census.

Some background about the swift fox and the current census

Swift foxes get their name from their ability to run 40 mph in a sprint, their main defense against predators. It's the smallest of the canids (dog family) in North America weighing an average of five pounds, about the weight of a house cat. Their preferred habitat is open plains and mixed grass prairie (being only 12 inches at the shoulder they can see potential danger in shorter grass) and they once were plentiful in Montana.

In 1969, because of no sightings for several decades, swift foxes were considered extirpated (no longer in) from Montana. Swift fox's population decline likely was in large part due to the breaking up of prairie for agriculture and inadvertent poisoning from practices to eliminate agricultural threats like coyotes and wolves. A swift fox diet is composed mainly of small mammals, such as rodents and rabbits, but they will also eat insects, small birds, lizards, amphibians and fish. The introduction of swift foxes in southern Calgary and Saskatchewan during the 1980's and 90's and by some native tribes in Montana (early 2000) resulted in scattered reappearances of the tiny fox.

In 2000 an international survey was begun to track the Swift Fox. Per Nicole Hussey, the FWP Nongame Wildlife Biologist who oversees the survey in Montana, the current data collection in Blaine County will help "estimate the population and determine any changes in range or occupancy across the study area." She said the study area in Montana, "spans from about Havre to Glasgow with the Canadian border and Highway 2 being the north and south boundaries, respectively."

The team of techs in Blaine County is working its way east and at the end of the study will meet up with a team working west that started at Opheim. The local team began in the Wild Horse area north of Havre in November and arrived in Chinook just before Christmas. From the results of the survey FWP personnel will determine management strategies and goals including assessing the current trapping policy for swift fox in Region 6. The data gathering should be completed in March.

Gathering data about swift fox

Field data is gathered during the night (the foxes are nocturnal) from locations used in prior surveys so data can be compared over time. The first method, camera trapping, involves setting up six cameras at 1000 yard intervals along the edge of an area where foxes will likely cross the line of cameras. Swift foxes generally travel the path of least resistance. Across from each individual camera is a wooden stake with a "scent disc" that helps attract foxes. When the fox comes to assess the scent the camera captures the animal's image. Technicians first determine if a fox has an ear tag, a sign that it was processed earlier in the study. The cameras stay in place for three nights and sometimes as many as 4-5 images of swift foxes will be recorded during that period.

Live trapping uses six box traps baited with meat, spaced along a line similar to the camera set up. The traps are out for three nights and checked at midnight and 6am to minimize the time an animal might be in a trap. Live trapping allows technicians to collect more specific data that allows for comparisons about the physical condition of the trapped animals.

It takes both technicians to process a trapped animal. A cloth sack is placed so the animal exits the trap into the sack and can be weighed. Then one technician holds the muzzle of the fox in a corner of the sack while the other tech begins the physical examination from the open end of the sack, beginning with the rump of the fox. First a measurement, ankle to toe, of a hind foot is taken to determine size. The examining tech then takes a "pinch" of fur which is put in an envelope and used for DNA and genetic testing. The fox's body condition is categorized on a scale from "fat to skinny" by the feel of the body. The sex is determined and the age is established by the condition of the teeth-worn down indicate an older fox or sharp incisors for a young specimen. Lastly an identifying ear tag is attached and the fox is released at the site where it was caught.

The data from the survey/census will be examined after the study is completed in March. I asked the techs if they had any observations about the current survey at this point. Both agreed the cameras were showing a "good number of foxes moving along the edges of populations identified in earlier studies." Another positive fact pointed out by Daniel was, "So far on this census we've already trapped and processed as many foxes as were recorded during the entire survey in 2015." They agreed the numbers look promising and that made them hopeful about the future of swift foxes.

Study supervisor Nicole Hussey wrote, "In some cases they (swift foxes) have been known to be indicators of an intact grassland ecosystem." An indicator species is a measure of the environmental conditions that exist in a given locale. She described swift foxes as a "charismatic minifauna of sorts," meaning people like small animals and like to talk about them. She added, "...by conserving charismatic critters we can also benefit other species that occupy similar habitats such as grassland birds." New knowledge about the condition of the grassland ecosystem can be a helpful by product that benefits other species.

The rest of the story...

FWP swift fox techs Jules and Daniel say they will soon be leaving Chinook to live in Turner and work from there. The techs working their way west are currently in Whitewater. Sometime in March the teams will meet to complete the data gathering phase of the project. Then FWP personnel will begin the process of evaluating the data which ultimately will help guide management decisions for swift fox in Region 6.

Readers interested in learning more about swift fox in our area may enjoy reading a 2018 article in the FWP's "Montana Outdoors" magazine based on the survey prior to the current study. You can access that story by putting this address in to your internet browser: SWIFT FOXES - Montana FWP.