The color is orangeish-tan on the back fading to a light tan on the belly. The tip of the tail is black and there are black spots on the muzzle. The red fox has a white- tipped tail. The swift fox is found only on the western prairies while the larger gray fox is found only in the eastern forests. Widespread shooting, trapping, and poisoning campaigns aimed at wolves, coyote, and red fox also reduced swift fox populations.
Swift fox are very easy to trap and very susceptible to poisoned bait.
They also get hit by cars when foraging along the sides of roads. Notify a natural resource agency if you observe a swift fox in North Dakota. The taxonomy of the swift fox has been a source of confusion and debate. Many researchers now dispute the old claim of there being a Northern Swift fox and a Southern swift fox. There have been several petitions to list the swift fox as endangered or threatened, but the requests were determined to be not warranted.