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Each morning in June and July, biologist Tevin Messerly drives across a vast grassland in northern Montana. He’s looking for a small, speedy animal called a swift fox.

The land is part of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. This 1,055-square-mile area is home to the Aaniiih (ah-NEE) and Nakoda tribes. It was also once home to a large number of swift foxes. But over time, the animals nearly disappeared.

Messerly is a scientist with the Fort Belknap Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is one of many scientists working to bring swift foxes back to the area. His work is part of a larger effort to protect wildlife across the flat, grassy region of North America called the Great Plains.

Swift foxes are related to dogs, wolves, and other foxes. But they are tiny, weighing less than a house cat. They run super fast—reaching nearly 40 miles per hour. As  omnivores , they eat plants and small animals. The foxes help control the rodent population. They are also a food source for predators, like coyotes.

The Great Plains  ecosystem  once included large numbers of many other animals, like bison and birds, says Jesse Boulerice. He’s a scientist with the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Institute. He’s working with Messerly to help wildlife on the Great Plains.

In the 1500s, Europeans came to North America. When prairie dogs dug up their crops and coyotes hunted their livestock, the settlers poisoned the animals. This killed many swift foxes too. By the late 1800s, their numbers had plummeted.

Scientists wanted to help. Decades ago, they began breeding swift foxes, and releasing them in the northern and southern parts of their  habitat . Still, there was a 186-mile space between the areas.

In 2020, scientists from the Smithsonian National Zoo partnered with the Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes to return swift foxes to the gap in their range. They moved 139 foxes from Wyoming and Colorado to Fort Belknap. The two tribes are working to bring other animals, like bison, back to the plains too. “We couldn’t have done this project without the reservation community,” says Boulerice.

To monitor the swift foxes, scientists fitted them with collars that track their movements. The program seems to be working. Scientists have found 27 wild baby foxes!

Today, tracking the foxes is trickier. The collars were made to fall off after two years. But scientists like Messerly keep up the search. He often smells the foxes’ skunky scent before he sees them.

The hope is that someday, swift foxes will thrive across the plains without help from humans. “It’s all about restoring the prairie,” says Messerly.            

To monitor the swift foxes, scientists fitted them with collars that track their movements. The program seems to be working. Scientists have found 27 wild baby foxes!