{"id":478313,"date":"2026-02-13T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478313\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T23:24:11","slug":"gps-collars-camera-traps-to-see-if-foxes-are-swimming-into-booderee-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478313\/","title":{"rendered":"GPS collars, camera traps to see if foxes are swimming into Booderee National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fox researcher Paul Meek says he suspects the “cunning” creature has taken to using waterways at a New South Wales national park, but needs to know for sure in order to get a handle on them.<\/p>\n

His team has tagged six of the animals with GPS collars and set up more than 70 camera traps in Booderee National Park to map their every movement.<\/p>\n

It is a far cry from his methods 25 years ago, which used radio signals and daily checks for fresh paw prints in the sand.<\/p>\n

“We get a fix on where that fox is so we can actually piece together their movements every 15 minutes,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s incredible to understand how foxes are using the landscape.”<\/p>\n

\"fox<\/p>\n

The program is hoping to collar about 30 foxes to gain an understanding of how the population is using the park to get around. (Supplied: National Environmental Science Program)<\/p>\n

He said the ideal number of foxes collared would be closer to 30 to “iron out” their movements.<\/p>\n

“If we have foxes swimming across Sussex Inlet, then that’s a whole new aspect of management that we need to start thinking about,” Dr Meek said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Paul Meek uses gloves and a mat to kneel on when setting up and checking fox traps due to the animals’ high level of intelligence.\u00a0 (Supplied: National Environmental Science Program)<\/p>\n

“What are the things we need to do and change in the management regime we’ve currently got to stop immigration, because that’s the weak point at this stage.<\/p>\n

“You can never learn enough about foxes \u2014 they’re so smart.”<\/p>\n

’21st-century technology’<\/p>\n

The work is part of the National Environmental Science Program’s Resilient Landscapes Hub, which aims to improve its understanding of fox behaviour for more effective conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

The extinction of several native species at Booderee, including the long-nosed potoroo, the eastern quoll and the southern brown bandicoot in the 90s, has been attributed to fox predation.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Nick Dexter (left) and Paul Meek have worked together in fox management for more than 20 years.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Romy Gilbert)<\/p>\n

Parks Australia conservation and country manager Nick Dexter said Booderee had experienced significant loss over 100 years.<\/p>\n

“There were a number of animals we know were here from early records and archaeological sites,” he said.<\/p>\n

That included the once-abundant greater glider, which has not been detected since 2006.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the park became jointly managed by Parks Australia and Wreck Bay traditional custodians, which ramped up efforts to protect small mammals.<\/p>\n

\"signage<\/p>\n

More than six foxes have been trapped and fitted with a GPS collar so far.\u00a0 (Supplied: National Environmental Science Program)<\/p>\n

“We’ve been baiting to protect the wildlife here intensively for over 20 years, and we’ve had some great results for creatures like long-nose bandicoots and brush-tailed possums,” Dr Dexter said.<\/p>\n

“We believe they’re in high numbers now because of our intensive fox control \u2014 but we wanted to do more.”<\/p>\n

In 2024, just over a dozen eastern quolls were released into the park’s botanical gardens in a predator-proof fenced area.<\/p>\n

\"signage<\/p>\n

Booderee Botanic Gardens guests are reminded to keep an eye out for the newly reintroduced population of eastern quolls.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Romy Gilbert)<\/p>\n

A recent census of the reintroduced species found the population had doubled inside the predator-free zone.<\/p>\n

Dr Dexter welcomed the “high-tech wildlife management of the 21st century”, but said he understood the reality of dealing with the invasive creature.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, the dream goal would be to have no foxes, but I don’t believe that’s possible given how widely distributed they are and how they can move,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said he would like to see them removed entirely, but if not, “better the devil you know”.<\/p>\n

“Do they move in and out of the park? How big of an area are they occupying?” he said.<\/p>\n

How will it work?<\/p>\n

The camera traps are used in conjunction with GPS collars to improve detection of where the foxes are entering the park.<\/p>\n

The traps use a sensor that detects heat from an animal against a background temperature that is cooler or hotter than the animal.<\/p>\n

When the sensor is triggered, photos or videos are recorded onto memory cards for scrutiny by park staff.<\/p>\n

\"computer<\/p>\n

More than six foxes with GPS collars are creating “incredible” data highlighting how they are using the landscape. (Supplied: National Environmental Science Program)<\/p>\n

The collars bolster the data by being able to track the animal’s location every 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

The team is also collecting DNA from the animals collared in the park, as well as some of the foxes from across the water at Sussex Inlet.<\/p>\n

“We can look at relationships in DNA to see if the genetics of the foxes here are related closely to family genetics on the other side,” Dr Meek said.<\/p>\n

“If the foxes that are coming into the park are coming down through there, that then makes you think, ‘Well, how are we going to stop them?'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fox researcher Paul Meek says he suspects the “cunning” creature has taken to using waterways at a New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,243257,2929,243259,8174,1953,17705,8969,208857,243258,9329,337,128,9525,338],"class_list":["post-478313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-booderee-national-park","tag-conservation","tag-conservation-australia","tag-ecology","tag-fox","tag-foxes","tag-invasive-species","tag-jervis-bay","tag-paul-meek","tag-pest-control","tag-research","tag-science","tag-threatened-species","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}