One by one, crate doors swing open. Five Arctic foxes bound into the snow.

Will the foxes find enough food? Warm weather made lemmings scarce here in Norway’s Hardangervidda National Park.

Lemmings are small rodents. Think of them as the hamsters of the frozen north. They’re also an Arctic fox’s favorite food. Scientists say the park hasn’t had a good lemming year since 2021.

What would you feed a hungry fox when no juicy lemmings are around? Scientists choose . . . dog food.

That’s right. The scientists supply more than 30 feeding stations across the wilderness with dog kibble.

Is this a good idea? It depends on whom you ask.

Some scientists hope the extra food will help foxes get through a hard time. But just when will that “hard time” end? Will the weather stay warm? Will lemming populations stay low? Most feeding programs last just a little while. (For example: For two winters, people fed romaine lettuce to starving manatees in Florida after pollution wiped out their seagrass.) But Norway has been feeding the foxes for nearly 20 years.

In a way, that’s been great for Arctic foxes. In 2006, Norway, Finland, and Sweden had as few as 40 foxes. Now they have around 550. Still, scientists say fox numbers aren’t high enough. Without added food, more bad lemming years could starve them out.

God calls people to care for the animals He made. But how to do it best takes wisdom. All that dog food costs millions of Norwegian kroner each year. And some fear the Arctic fox species will become permanently dependent on human help.

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” — Matthew 8:20

Why? People can help a species with food in a hard time. But species must eventually be able to support themselves in the wild.