Incredible nighttime footage shows a feral predator’s attempts to attack vulnerable populations of native animals were thwarted by a security measure. With reasonable ease, the European red fox can be seen climbing a two-metre fence that surrounds a 1,000-hectare property in Victoria’s west.
But as it scrambles towards the top, it’s zapped by an electric wire. The shock didn’t inflict long-term harm, but it taught the fox a valuable lesson about breaching the fence.
Most importantly, it protected the eastern quolls and eastern barred bandicoots that live at Tiverton, a 1,000-hectare merino sheep farming property.
The business is in partnership with the Odonata Foundation, a conservation charity that’s dedicated to protecting rare species that are threatened by invasive species like foxes and cats.
Its chief operating officer Matt Singleton said foxes are “highly destructive” in Victoria because of their “kill and cache” behaviour.
This means they’ll go on a hunting frenzy, decimating populations, so they can store the carcasses for a rainy day.
Seeing a fox’s attempts to kill defeated is satisfying to watch for many ecologists because of the harm the species has inflicted on native animals in Australia.
In 2024, a video showing a fox being chased off by a wallaby created a sensation after it was shared by wildlife rescue group WIRES.
The fox begins to climb the two-metre-high fence but is then shocked by an electric pulse. Source: Odonata Foundation
Second video shows hungry fox watching prey through fence
Tiverton has a complex rocky habitat and grassy plains. Although the farm is predator-free, it’s surrounded by modified landscapes that have high populations of cats and foxes.
For years, the Odonata Foundation was aware that foxes had been trying to find a way to breach the fence.
“We probably pick up between a dozen and half a dozen foxes on cameras every night patrolling the fence, looking for a weakness to try and get in,” Singleton said.
“But this is the first one we’ve got one on camera trying to climb it.”
Most often, the company’s fixed trail cameras capture vision of foxes watching prey on the other side of the fence.
A 2024 clip shows a bandicoot oblivious to the predator watching it through the wire as it hops around at night.
Surprising scale of fox’s impact on Aussie wildlife
The eastern quoll and the eastern-barred bandicoot were both declared extinct on Australia’s mainland because of invasive species, but efforts have been successful in recovering them in areas where predators are excluded.
But they’re not the only species to be threatened by foxes in Victoria.
In just 25 years, around 3,400 little penguins were killed on Phillip Island, before foxes were eradicated in 2015.
And in 2025, a fox managed to breach Melbourne Zoo’s high-security fencing and kill long-nosed potoroos, a species listed as vulnerable to extinction.
Brushtail possums once lived across outback Australia, but their range declined by 80 per cent following the introduction of the red fox.
Other small mammals like bilbies have also significantly declined.
Increasingly, many Australian species can only survive on islands, sanctuaries, or predator-proof fenced properties.
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