A family of at least five swift foxes was recently spotted in the tall prairie grasses south of Medicine Hat, Alta. — a positive sign for the resurgence of a species that was declared extirpated, or locally extinct, in Canada in 1978.

Biologists from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) set up motion-activated wildlife cameras on their property south of Medicine Hat after they saw an amateur photographer’s Facebook post about a swift fox sighting in the area. When the cameras snapped photos of the rare animals, the den was confirmed. The NCC is not sharing the precise location of the den at this time because they want to minimize human disturbances to the animals.

Once abundant throughout the grasslands from the Canadian Prairies south to Texas, populations of the smallest North American fox species had been decimated by the expansion of agriculture and industry by the early 20th century. Before their reintroduction to Canada in the 1980s, swift foxes had been absent from the Prairies for nearly 50 years, the last one being spotted in Alberta in 1938. 

“What makes it so exciting is that you don’t see [swift foxes] that often because there aren’t that many of them,” says Megan Jensen, the NCC’s natural area manager for southeast Alberta. “Seeing them is a privilege for me and it’s exciting because we know that it means that we’re doing something right with our grasslands.”