Badlands National Park (BADL) began a three-year swift fox restoration program in 200 3. A significant number of these released foxes are surviving to reproduce and will likely establish a population.
Therefore, it is essential to continue to monitor this population by gathering reproduction,
pup survival, habitat preference, and genetic information in order to assess the long-term viability of the population.
This project will also guide future management decisions about population supplementation beyond the current release program.
In addition, it will be important to determine if/when the Badlands swift fox population merges or connects with the resident swift fox population in southwestern South Dakota.
These two populations would then begin to function as a metapopulation and thus increase genetic diversity and population viability.