Students participate in swift fox study

Dr. Teresa Frink, Professor of Rangeland, said 15 students enrolled in Mammology (AGRI 445/BIOL 435) have strategically deployed 20 trail cameras, so far, to document if the state endangered animal, Vulpes velox, is living in western Nebraska.

A full-grown swift fox is about the size of a house cat and its tail has a black tip compared to the red fox, which is larger and has a white tip on its tail. The swift fox prefers locations without trees and generally lives underground in shortgrass prairies where it can view potential predators approaching.

The cameras are on U.S. Forest Service grasslands in Dawes County and some private lands in Sheridan and Sioux Counties.

Kayden Singpiel of Chadron is one of the students involved in the project.

“The cameras will be in place throughout the fall semester. We will go out every 10 days to change out batteries and SD cards, as well as rebait the cameras. We will record all data from our survey and check every SD card to see images of all animals caught in photos,” she said.

In late September, Singpiel and four other students set up their bait stations several feet in front of the motion-activated cameras with skunk essence in petroleum jelly. The scent proved effective in attracting a wide range of mammals and birds in the 2013 CSC study Frink coordinated with the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The 2013 study documented the presence of swift fox on 63 of the 902 cameras used. The results were published in Wildlife Biology in August 2022.

Frink said the data gathered by CSC students will be shared with Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and U.S. Forest Service biologists, as well as private landowners who are participating. 

CSC students participating in the project include members of the CSC Wildlife Club and Rangeland majors.

Frink wrote the foreword for a 2014 children’s book about a swift fox by Jeff Kurrus and reviewed the book’s scientific facts for accuracy. Kurrus spoke and hosted two book signings on campus in 2016.