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FOX CONTROL SOLUTIONS
At "Wildpro" Professional Wildlife Controllers, we specialise in the control of foxes, particularly in urban areas. Our state of the art equipment, fox capture and
control techniques coupled with many years of experience puts us at the leading edge of urban and rural fox control. Our services include:
Den Location and Fumigation
Harbor Removal
Live Capture of Foxes
Humane Trapping and Control
Large Scale Poisoning Programs (Rural areas only)
Specialist Shooting Programs
Expert Advice and Consultancy
It is not unusual to see foxes in the urban-rural fringe, especially after
midnight and up to dawn when they are active. You may also se them during the day in warmer weather.
Foxes occur in all areas of Melbourne from the suburbs to the urban fringe. They may be using your block as a route to
other food sources and may not actually live in your backyard.
Food left out for native animals such as possums and birds makes them feel 'safe' on the ground where they are normally wary. This makes them easy prey to
foxes or cats.
Never feed native animals. It alters their diet, damages their health and makes them easy targets for foxes in your backyard.
A fox removed from its territory will be quickly replaced with another.
It is more effective to eliminate the attraction to foxes and make your property fox safe.
Lock up chickens, ducks guinea pigs and pet rabbits in roofed enclosure at night
Clean up food scraps, pet food left outside
and excess fruit dropped by fruit trees
Cover your compost heap or use a compost bin
Never make foxes pets by feeding them
Remove blackberry and other weed thickets which provide cover for foxes
Do not feed wildlife
If you see a fox in the area let your neighbors know so they can take action
"Colonial gentlemen" introduced foxes into Australia in the 1870's for fox hunts. The Australian environment
was an ideal habitat, with an abundance of susceptible prey and very little competition, foxes spread rapidly. Today foxes are found in two-thirds of Australia and throughout Victoria.
They would be the main threat for
potential spread of rabies should this disease ever be introduced into Australia. This was one of the main reasons foxes were declared as vermin.
Foxes are opportunistic feeders, eating a wide variety of food. In
conservation areas, foxes prey on a variety of native animals, including small mammals, birds and reptiles. Foxes also feed on blackberry fruit and spread the seed through their droppings. In urban areas possums, native mice
and rats are an important food source.
Under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, foxes are listed as a threatening process because of the threat they pose to native wildlife populations.
Fox numbers in the
urban-rural fringe are higher than in country areas. In some country regions fox density ranges 1 to 4 per square kilometer. In the urban-rural fringe the average density is 6 to 8 foxes per square kilometer, with a maximum of
14 per square kilometer in some urban environments.
However, 'visible' foxes do not indicate the true number of foxes present. Research suggests that for every fox seen there is another four undetected. This ration may
approach 10 to 1 in rough or timbered terrain.
Foxes produce one litter per year and reach sexually maturity within ten months. Females have an average litter of three cubs.
Dens are established in late winter
for breeding and cub rearing, with up to three dens being used at a time. The young appear in late spring and are independent by late summer.
Residential areas are an important food source for foxes. They forage around
rubbish bins, picnic sites, and compost heaps feeding also on fruit and pet food left outside. Domestic fowl, livestock and guinea pigs not adequately enclosed may fall prey to foxes.
Foxes are generally nocturnal
animals, resting during the day in many forms of shelter which may be: under houses, sheds, outbuilding or in hollow logs, rock piles, drainpipes, car bodies, under blackberry and gorse patches. Foxes may be living in your
backyard or garage without your knowing it.
SCIENTIFIC UPDATE
The CSIRO's Bio control Center is working on an anti-fertility vaccine for foxes, which prevents breeding by attacking protein in the egg or sperm. A
specific vaccine for foxes has not been found and this could take up to 20 years.
Australian research is presently focussing on genetically engineering a vaccine, which kills the sperm in the reproductive tract. The
vaccine would be delivered in a harmless virus strain similar to the cowpox virus, or a bacterium that would colonize in the animal's gut.
In residential areas foxes tend to be more of a nuisance than a threat to
domestic pets, particularly cats and dogs. Foxes are not a threat to children, cats or dogs.
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