Our fox busting team is busy

Foxes are a significant threat to our precious wildlife. Lyrebirds, Phascogales, and White-throated Nightjars, are just three of especially vulnerable animals that rely on our bushland for habitat and breeding security.

This graphic video, captured recently on the Co-op, illustrate foxes’ stealth and deadliness as predators.

Our Fox Busting team has been busy over the past couple of months.

Following a monitoring program where we identified regular fox traffic, we set a pair of soft-jaw fox traps at a location on A Track. Our 4G camera provided us with 24/7 images and the ability to respond promptly to any catch; to dispatch a fox or release a non-target native.

Murray was able to respond to, and dispatch a fox; Duncan was able to release, unharmed, a brushtail possum, and most recently David was able to do an early-morning trap re-set after a passing wombat inadvertently triggered the traps without being caught.

A similar inadvertent triggering of the traps resulted from a casually passing wallaby, again eluding the soft jaws.

Meanwhile, phase two of our CPE trial is to conclude shortly. We have extended the trial for a couple of weeks at one particular site on the aqueduct track where there has been on-going keen interest from a fox. This is the same location where we had one cat sighting and have set a cat trap adjacent to the CPE device.

Both devices are being monitored by our camera. While the cat has not returned, we are having regular visits from a fox.

This video captures the moment a fox bites down on the bait, triggering the CPE mechanism.