In \u201cReturn of the No\u2019ouhah Tok a\u2019na\u201d \u2014 the Third-Place Winner of the 2024 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest \u2014 filmmaker Roshan Patel documents how Fort Belknap tribal members in northern Montana are helping to reintroduce a native carnivore to its historic range.<\/p>\n
The swift fox \u2014 known as N\u00f3ouh\u00e0h-Toka\u2019na to the Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes \u2014 once roamed the Western plains from Texas to Canada, eating small rodents and insects.<\/p>\n
But their numbers swooned with the arrival of settlers, who plowed their grasslands and set poison baits for canine predators.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, conservationists began reintroducing foxes in Montana\u2019s Blackfeet and Fort Peck Indian reservations, but these animals haven\u2019t connected with populations to the south.<\/p>\n
Now, members of the Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes are working with biologists to reintroduce 30 to 40 swift foxes a year, for five years, to the Fort Belknap reservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hope is that the foxes continue to expand into their former range and eventually connect the two disconnected populations,\u201d says filmmaker Roshan Patel.<\/p>\n
Based on observations and genetic information from stool samples, scientists believe the foxes are establishing new dens, finding mates, and successfully raising litters.<\/p>\n
Patel was drawn to this story by the tribes\u2019 relationship to the swift fox, which they consider a missing puzzle piece in the larger ecosystem of the plains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a story about a scientific argument solely. There was a human connection driving all the efforts to bring foxes back to Fort Belknap,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope viewers appreciate the importance of community in conservation efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n