In 2015 the Christmas Hills Landcare Group secured funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme via a 2014-15 PPWCMA Community Grant to undertake a fox trapping project.
In 2015 the Christmas Hills Landcare Group secured funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme via a 2014-15 PPWCMA Community Grant to undertake a fox trapping project.
24 private properties were involved in the trapping program.
Trapping was conducted by Peter Voutier of Feralex Pest Control in two rounds with their timing based on the fox breeding cycle to optimise the impact on local fox populations.
The first round was conducted from 28th July 2015 to 25th August 2015 when foxes are pairing off and preparing to establish dens, and the second round was conducted from the 14th December 2015 to the 13th January 2016 when young foxes are dispersing from the dens to establish their own territories.
For the first round, 138 soft-jaw leg-hold traps were set and checked daily over two trapping pulses on the 24 properties for a total of 987 trapnights.
A total of 9 foxes and 2 cats were trapped, with 1 cat sent to the pound. The stomachs from the rest were removed and frozen. To increase the number of stomach samples, the fox trapper also removed the stomachs from another 6 foxes shot on a nearby property, 2 road kill specimens, and one found dead on a private property.
A Christmas Hills Landcare Group event titled “So what have the foxes been eating?” was held on Sunday, 13th September 2015 where 29 people participated in the washing and drying of the stomach contents.
These contents were then sent to Barbara Triggs, author of “Tracks, Scats and other Traces” for mammal hair identification. Unfortunately, the stomach contents were not in a condition (some still wet, and beginning to deteriorate) to be returned to enable further contents analysis.
For the second round, 126 soft-jaw leg-hold traps were set and checked daily over two trapping pulses on the 24 properties for a total of 635 trapnights.
A total of 38 foxes and 1 cat were trapped. Again, all stomachs were removed and frozen. To increase the number of stomach samples, the fox trapper also removed the stomachs from another 10 foxes he had trapped for Parks Victoria in the nearby One Tree Hill and Rifle Range Reserves.
A Christmas Hills Landcare Group event titled “What have the foxes been eating? -part 2” was held on Sunday, 17th January 2016 where 9 people participated in the washing and drying of the stomach contents.
The second round contents were then photographed before again being sent to Barbara Triggs for mammal hair identification. After she had completed her analysis, the contents were returned and they will now be sent to the Melbourne Museum to further identification of animal remains in the stomach contents.
The results of the contents analyses are contained in the report at https://www.landcarevic.org.au/assets/Uploads/GroupPage/cd6c46a2-3fe7-4bbe-aa66-01f4a6dfa44afox-stomach-contents-analysis-report.pdf