Question for people who live near foxes

[Miss Chicken]

How easy are foxes to see, find etc?

Here in Tasmania there is a Fox Eradication Program. Because the fox has never become established here like it did on the Mainland there has been far fewer extinctions in Tasmania.

Today my local newspaper had a report that said

According to Fox Eradication Program records on the Environment Department's website, the last time program staff found a fox scat was in March last year, in the North-West.
This final scat find was preceded by a high number of scat discoveries in 2008 and 2009, and the most recent carcass find was in 2006 at Cleveland in the Northern Midlands.
However, the fox hotline continues to receive calls. Between April 9 and May 6 there were 11 calls indicating possible sightings spread across the state, as well as reports of animal kills, carcasses and fox sounds.
Overall, the evidence of foxes in Tasmania constitutes four carcasses, one skull, one discovery of blood, two sets of footprints and 57 scats.

If there are foxes in Tasmania should they be easy to find?



SOURCE


More than $27,000,000 has been spent on the program in the last 10 years and many Tasmanians, inlcuding myself, think that it is possible that some of the 'evidence' has been planted either by pranksters or by someone working on the program who wants to keep their job.

 

[RoJoHen]

I dunno, I see foxes every once in a while roaming around the neighborhood.

 

[Canadave]

I see the odd fox around from time to time. Not terribly frequently, but I know they exist.

 

[Davros]

I see them every once in a while. I see more coyotes.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

If it's mating season, you'll know if they're around.

In my part of the UK, foxes are very common in urban areas, and we see and hear them frequently. I don't know how cautious your foxes are around humans though; they might not be anywhere near as bold. But their vocalizations should be heard if they're there.

 

[iguana_tonante]

No foxes around here that I know of. But they are sly fellows, so you never know.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Here is a map that shows all the sightings etc

If the fox was this widespread I think there would be more conclusive evidence.

According to this page

As foxes can defecate some eight times a day and are territorial, that’s an awful lot of fox crap in one discrete home range waiting to be found after a few days, especially if you have a trained dog to help you, and if you are searching outwards in a radius from one scat you have found. This is very different to the brief searches we made along narrow tracks in our past research, because we wanted to limit the number of scats found (as we only had a few thousand dollars to spend on scat tests when developing the technique!). But if your technique were working well when you searched a wide area, you would expect to find two scats from the same fox at least a few times. In fact, because foxes are strongly territorial, you would expect to find large clusters of scats in one area. And that’s just the problem. Of the 56 fox scats so far identified as “fox” in Tasmania (because not all have been analysed for individual DNA), they do not come from within clusters of positive fox scats. Of the 15 identified individuals, no two scats have come from the same fox. Any scientist worth their lab coat should want to know why this is so or what it might imply. Some people suggested that Tasmanian foxes might not be territorial and could behave differently from their mainland counterparts. So, in Tasmania, the fox craps and having crapped once moves on. Really?

 

[Count Zero]

I live in an urban area but I've seen a fox once. They seem to live in the areas around rails. But all in all, I think they're pretty shy. Unlike boars of which I once saw a whole family galopp through the neighbourhood I was in in full daylight.

 

[Small White Car]

You may not see them but you'd sure hear them.

I mean, assuming they were near a house. It's possible they're hiding way out in the woods away from everyone. But around here they live out back and about ever other week or so you hear them complaining, fighting, telling jokes...I dunno what they're doing, but they make noise.

 

[Thestral]

I'm curious, why are they wiping out foxes?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Because the introduced fox is one of the main reason many species have become extinct or highly endangered on the Australian Mainland, but remained common in fox-free Tasmania. Examples are the Eastern Quoll and the Bettong.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Bettong.

Aw, that's cute, it looks like a fat miniature kangaroo.

 

[Thestral]

Ah. Fair enough, if a shame.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I just came across this story about local red foxes in Lake County, Illinois.

I have only ever seen coyotes around here, and not too many at that.

There was a wolf killed on a local highway once, and persisting rumors of puma sightings.

Imagine being able to watch a whole family of these:

 

[captcalhoun]

they turn up around me every so often. and yes, they're noisy fuckers. more than once i've been woken up by them making a god-awful racket.

 

[Orac Zen]

Ah. Fair enough, if a shame.

Hardly a shame. They're a pest animal, deliberately introduced to Australia so a few people could continue the imbecilic tradition of fox hunting. Exterminating them is a good thing; they don't belong in this country.


As for how easy they are to spot, I see them reasonably often (one or two a month, maybe). Then again they're not exactly rare around here, unfortunately.

 

[Sean Aaron]

There's loads of urban foxes in Glasgow. You'll frequently see them along the rail lines. We used to have one run through our garden and I've seen one crossing the street in broad daylight - though that was exceptional.

 

[Jadzia]

Question for people who live near foxes

The glacier mint factory?

 

[auntiehill]

Not many foxes here in the swamp; we have tons of raccoons, skunks, possums, and even the occasional armadillo. Every once in awhile, an alligator will come along, as well, and scare the crap out of one of my neighbors. The biggest "pest" problem people have here are the squirrels and bats; they set up house in people's attics and garages. Well, that and the roaches that are roughly the size of a VW.

About 3 1/2 hours from here, at my folks' place, there are lots of foxes, bunnies, coyotes, raccoons, and just about every other kind of critter you can think of. They also have a big problem with little red scorpions, which nest in a home's insulation.

 

[J.T.B.]

I know there are foxes around where I live but only a few times have I ever seen them, and always in the dawn hours. They are pretty smart and very good at avoiding people. I saw one earlier this year, on my way to work. I thought there was a bushy-tailed cat sneaking along the road, but then it turned to look at me and I saw those huge ears.

About ten years ago there was a highly publicized series of cat mutilations in Salt Lake City. It was reported that organs were removed through neat incisions, and a lot of people, including the Humane Society, assumed it was people involved in some kind of occult ritual killing. But you guessed it, they found a fox den near the end of a street in the foothills that was full of cat hair. They were apparently hunting pets because drought had reduced the numbers of their normal prey.

There are a lot of coyotes too, but not the ubran kind like you hear about in California. I have spent hours watching coyotes in the desert through binoculars, they are pretty fascinating.

--Justin