Editor's choice November/December 2025

The editor’s choice is the article by Smith et al.: “Heading west: Ecology of swift foxes in a novel landscape beyond their range”

Habitat models have become an indispensable tool in wildlife ecology, influencing conservation priorities and management decisions. However, their apparent precision often conceals methodological and conceptual challenges. Most habitat models infer 'suitability' from correlations between environmental variables and animal occurrences. They assume that used habitats reflect ecological needs, and that species-habitat relationships remain constant across space and time. In reality, however, such assumptions rarely hold true. Species distributions are also influenced by historical contingencies, dispersal constraints, and interactions such as competition or predation. Furthermore, models developed within a limited environmental context may fail when applied
elsewhere, resulting in misleading conclusions about what is “suitable” habitat.

Smith et al. illustrate these pitfalls nicely in their study of the swift fox (Vulpes velox), documenting the species' expansion outside its historical range into habitat types that were previously considered unsuitable. Using GPS telemetry and camera trapping, the authors identified key environmental correlates of fox occurrence in this new habitat and found minimal spatial and temporal segregation from competitors such as coyotes and badgers. The results suggest behavioural and ecological flexibility far beyond what conventional habitat models had assumed. This study exemplifies how and when habitat suitability models can go wrong: it exposes the danger of equating observed distributions with ecological limits. By challenging long-held assumptions about the swift fox’s habitat requirements, the study demonstrates that species may persist, and even thrive, in landscapes that have been dismissed as unsuitable. In doing so, the study provides a powerful, empirically grounded reminder that predictive models must be tested, not trusted, and that adaptability and behavioural plasticity are as integral to species persistence as any measured environmental variable.
 

/Ilse Storch

Editor-in-Chief

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