Mammals · Carnivora · Canidae

Swift Fox

Vulpes velox

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The swift fox is a small canid of the shortgrass prairies of North America, very like the kit fox but with slightly smaller ears and a shorter muzzle. It owes its name to its speed: it reaches more than 50 kilometres an hour over a short dash. It hunts rodents, rabbits, insects and birds, and depends entirely on burrows, which it uses all year round, unusually for a canid. It disappeared from Canada in the mid-twentieth century and has been successfully reintroduced to the prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Weight

1.8 kg – 3 kg

Size

45 cm – 54 cm

Lifespan

7 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

In pairs

Usually lives in pairs, sometimes for life.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

GrasslandCarnivore Nocturnal In pairs Grassland Mammal

3countries 5parks34same family

Fun facts

GeneralThe size of a house cat; it reaches 60 km/h and lives in burrows.
It uses a burrow all year round, not only for breeding: it is one of the few fox species that depends on underground shelter daily, because on the shortgrass prairie there is nowhere else to hide.
It became extinct in Canada in the 1930s and came back through a reintroduction begun in 1983, one of the first recoveries of a carnivore in North America.