Swift Fox

Your Gift in Action

Your gift will conserve critical habitats and ensure a future for species at risk. It will also build healthier, more resilient ecosystems that provide essential benefits and services to people and their communities, while countering the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Since 1962, NCC has brought Canadians together to conserve and restore more than 15 million hectares, coast to coast to coast. But we must do more faster and accelerate the pace of conservation. Every gift and donation counts.

Swift Fox

Swift foxes disappeared from Canada early in the 20th century, but were successfully reintroduced to the grasslands of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the 1980s.

The smallest wild dog in Canada, swift foxes are light in colour, with pointed ears and a black tip on their bushy tail. They measure about 30 centimetres tall and 80 centimetres long. Swift foxes weigh two to three kilograms (about the same as an adult Chihuahua) and get their name from their speed: up to 60 kilometres an hour.

Swift foxes thrive in open, short-grass and mixed-grass prairie, where it’s easy for them to spot predators and their prey (mice, rabbits, hares, carrion, birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians). Like all foxes, they are nocturnal and most active at night. They don’t necessarily mate for life, but they often live in pairs. Females typically give birth to four or five pups.

Although their re-introduction to the Canadian Prairies was a success, swift foxes are still considered threatened in Canada. Threats include shooting and trapping, accidental poisoning and predators, like coyotes, eagles and hawks.

Your gift will care for habitat that swift foxes and other endangered species rely on for their survival.

Photo 1: Photo by John E. Marriott. Photo 2: Photo by C. Berry. Photo 3: Photo by Nicholas Carbol Media. Photo 4: Photo by Nicholas Carbol Media