As many community members are aware, we have a significant number of foxes throughout our South West WA.  Each fox occupies a home range, which can be from 280-1600 hectares in size; however, during breeding season, foxes will reduce their roaming, and constantly return to the same den.

Foxes breed once a year, in June or July, with cubs born August or September in a dry, sheltered den. The dog fox (male parent) assists the lactating vixen by bringing in food for her and the cubs. Cubs are weaned at 6-8 weeks and begin to leave the den at 10 weeks. Young foxes can hunt for small mammals from 12 weeks of age, and most become independent at 5-6 months old.

Foxes can be found widespread across most of Australia, causing significant problems nationwide. Foxes can be found in higher density in more populated areas, and areas where they have access to food all year round. This includes cities and surrounding suburbs, out to agricultural pastoral land

Foxes are active mainly at night. Foxes rest during the day in a den, often an enlarged rabbit burrow, or in sheltered sites such as rock piles, hollow logs, or thickets. A fox may use several resting sites within its home range and does not necessarily return to the same site each day.

What can we do about Foxes? 
Best practice methods for controlling foxes can vary, so for personalised advice, please contact the Leschenault Biosecurity Group (LBG) to see how we may be able to assist.

Please report fox sightings/issues directly to LBG.  Please contact LBG directly with information about fox sightings, as soon as possible and with specific location details if possible.  We often learn about sightings that have been posted on social media, but foxes live up to their reputation of being very cunning and they have a large area of roam, so this doesn’t allow for timely and effective follow-up.  To best enable effective strategies for trapping foxes, we urge residents  to contact us directly, ideally with specific locations of a few sightings within a community, to help determine probable fox “route” for setting up set-up surveillance camera(s), hopefully, ultimately leading to effective trapping.

Contact Leschenault Biosecurity Group:
e-mail:
info@lbginc.org.au Phone:  0477 049 967