‘If we stop now, they’re gone forever’: The Nordic countries breeding Arctic foxes

Photo Craig Jackson/ Kristine Ulvund/ Nina. Retrieved from bbc.com

Arctic foxes were almost hunted to extinction in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Can projects to breed and feed them help this native species return for good?

As summer gives way to an early autumn on the Norwegian alpine tundra and the wind howls over the fells, the Arctic foxes remain in their dens.

“They’re not stupid”, says biologist Craig Jackson as he chops up frozen dog food with a butcher’s knife.

Jackson drops chunks of meat into buckets and, alongside his colleague Kristine Ulvund, walks past eight enclosures to deliver the animals their meal.

Sometimes, when the wind dies down, Jackson and Ulvund watch the young foxes frolic across the tundra, the animals unaware that the future of the Fennoscandian population rests on their fragile shoulders.