Bait interference by foxes Vulpes vulpes in a pasture/woodland landscape

Abstract

Early studies of the fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Australia were initiated under the perception that foxes were an economic threat to certain pastoral systems through predation of livestock. The bulk of the early literature suggests that foxes rarely prey upon viable lambs (McIntosh 1963; Dennis 1965; Mann 1968; Rowley 1970), although recent isolated cases of lamb and kid mortality associated with fox predation (Long et al. 1988) have resulted in continued fox control, particularly in sheep raising districts. More recently, however, it is recognised that fox predation is a major threat to many native animals (Kinnear et al. 1988; Saunders et al. 1995; Priddel and Wheeler 1997). To reduce the threats to stock and native wildlife there has been a significant increase in the use of 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) in baiting campaigns in NSW since the mid-1980's (Thompson and Fleming 1994).