Blackfeet Swift Fox Reintroduction Program
| Introduction
- A significant part
of the spiritual and cultural regeneration of native peoples is based upon the restoration
of their tribal lands and the indigenous species which once occupied them. This fact is
recognized by the mandate of ecosystem restoration of Tribal Fish & Wildlife
Departments in the U.S Great Plains. The swift fox (Vulpes velox/V.v.hebes) a species
unique to the great plains, was classified as extirpated over its Canadian range in 1978
and extirpated over 90 percent of its The only source for
swift fox is the Cochrane Ecological Institute-Cochrane Wildlife Reserve (CEI), which
holds the world’s only captive colony of swift fox. The CEI also has a proven record
in ecosystem restoration through the reintroduction of this species, as shown by the
downlisting of the swift fox in
In accordance with its mandate, the Blackfeet Tribal Fish & Wildlife Department in partnership with the CEI undertook a five year swift fox reintroduction program on Blackfeet tribal land (1998 – 2002). This program was the FIRST swift fox reintroduction undertaken in the USA and was funded in part (33%) by Defenders of Wildlife, USA. The Blackfeet Swift fox reintroduction programme was the first swift fox reintroduction in North America to use only captive bred swift fox for reintroduction, and to utilize the reintroduction protocols developed by the CEI (portable protective shelters, PPS, see publications list).
These Portable protective shelters, PPS, were developed at the CEI. They are designed to be placed over an abandoned badger hole in the release sites. When the foxes are released, they are placed, in their transport kennels (see illustration) adjacent to the PPS. Food and water is also placed beside the PPS. The foxes
remain in their kennels until they have recovered from the stress of transport. Then the
kennel doors are opened and the foxes emerge from their transport kennels in their own
time. Transport kennels and any uneaten food is removed after 7 hours. Some foxes enter
the PPS immediately, some do not, but over the period following release ( five days) all
reintroduced swift fox will use the PPS. PPS are removed from the reintroduction site
after 10 days. One of the
keys to post release survival is to have a protected and familiar place that the foxes can
use at will. The PPS provides that protected familiar place to reintroduced swift foxes in
unfamiliar environment. Release sites (in the Blackfeet and Blood (Kainai) programmes) are
selected on the basis of; ·
Jurisdictional
release site approval, ·
a pre-release
survey of habitat suitability (predator pressure, prey availability, availability of
escape terrain) ·
incorporates
Aboriginal traditional knowledge. The goal of
successful reintroduction is to encourage the reintroduced
swift foxes to stay in the release site area. The use of PPS does encourage the
reintroduced swift fox to stay in the release sites. Post release
monitoring over the length of the Blackfeet swift fox reintroduction programme, during the
reintroduction (1998 – 2002) and after (2002 – 2005) established high survival
(75% for reintroduced adults) and good breeding success.. The swift fox
population grew at a rate f 16% in 2003/04 and
14% in 2004/05…Based on the population growth rate, the number of foxes counted, and
the fortunate discovery of a (breeding pair) of swift fox in Augusta, Montana, I consider
this reintroduction a success. The Blackfeet tribe has....attained their goal of restoring
a culturally important species to Tribal Lands and have even initiated a comeback for
swift fox along the Rocky Mountain Front” (Ausband, D. M.Sc. Thesis University of Montana,2005 ). Since the
successful completion of the Blackfeet swift fox reintroduction programme, several Tribes
in the In addition,
after the blackfeet swift fox reintroduction programme was up and running, Turner
Endangered Species Foundation initiated a swift fox reintroduction programme on their land
in After
experimenting with the release method developed by the Canadian government, the “hard
release” method, see illustration “releasing a swift fox, Courtesy G. Scotter,
Canadian Wildlife Service” which resulted
in a less than 30% survival of swift fox released by South Dakota State Government, the
Agency altered their reintroduction methodology to reflect the PPS method developed by CEI
and used in the Blackfeet and Kainai Swift Fox reintroduction programmes. The modified
reintroduction method used by the State Agency was to put imported, translocated swift fox
down an abandoned badger hole and then cover the hole with chicken wire for a minimum of
48 hours. Survival success using this method increased from 30% (hard release method) to
60% using the modified PPS method (pers com SD State govt.)
An
interesting but as yet unexplored aspect of the blackfeet Swift fox reintroduction has been that the survival of reintroduced swift
fox has surpassed that of the documented survival of indigenous swift fox in Colorado and
the reintroduced swift fox in the Canadian programme (1983 – 1997). Why is this? In 1998 on the invitation of the Blackfeet Fish and Game Branch, CEI conducted a pilot reintroduction, the first release of a five year reintroduction programme. The report the 1998 work is available (Release Report 1998). Also take the opportunity to view the release in pictures (Pictures of the Release ). Some Pictures of swift fox reintroduction on Blackfeet land
Report on survival 2005 Dave Ausband To see the new reintroduction programme (Kainai Siinopaa Swift Fox Reintroduction) Also, view Voices of Extinction on this web page |
