{"id":534468,"date":"2026-03-12T01:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534468\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T01:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:17:11","slug":"yellagonga-regional-park-wildlife-under-threat-from-foxes-culling-efforts-doubled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534468\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellagonga Regional Park wildlife under threat from foxes, culling efforts doubled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feral foxes running through Yellagonga Regional Park are being targeted in a ramped up effort to safeguard the park\u2019s native wildlife.<\/p>\n

After community concerns over foxes decimating turtles and killing kangaroos, the cities of Joondalup and Wanneroo and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions last November agreed to more than double efforts to control foxes across the park.<\/p>\n

Eight rounds of fox control will be carried out from November 2025 to August 2026, up from three in 2024 and two in 2023.<\/p>\n

The European red fox was introduced to Australia in 1855 for recreational hunting, and by the 1870s large populations had become established in the wild.<\/p>\n

Today, foxes are considered a major pest in WA and are known to prey on southwestern snake-necked turtles and their eggs, posing a significant \u201cmajor threat\u201d to the population in the regional park.<\/p>\n

According to a DBCA spokesperson, 22 foxes have already been removed from Yellagonga Regional Park in just the past four months during two rounds of control measures and another currently under way, nearing the 31 removed in the 2024\u201325 financial year.<\/p>\n

The DBCA said effective control depended on ongoing co-ordination among multiple land managers.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe remains of an oblong turtle found in Yellagonga Regional Park. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest challenge in fox management is the rapid reinvasion of bushland areas, as foxes have large home ranges, move easily across mixed land tenures and are relatively common in urban areas,\u201d a DCBA spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cControl options are also limited in urban environments due to the presence of domestic animals and high-use visitor areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to increase fox control measures came after residents at the 2025 Joondalup annual general meeting voted for the council and city to \u201cwork with greater urgency to cull the growing population of foxes\u201d in the area.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year later, a report into this is now set to come back before the council and provide an overview of existing and proposed fox control and kangaroo management in the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city will continue to collaborate with key stakeholders to implement an integrated approach to the management of foxes and kangaroos within Yellagonga Regional Park,\u201d city officers said in the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition (to the eight fox control rounds), the DBCA committed to fund a round of fox control in Neerabup National Park, which is directly adjacent to Yellagonga Regional Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement will be reviewed at the end of its term in September 2026 to assess its effectiveness and inform the approach for the following fox control program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Invasive Species Council estimates that as many as 16 mammal species have become extinct, fully or partly, due to foxes.<\/p>\n

A recent study by Curtin University and the University of Adelaide, mapping the spread of red foxes, estimates there are now around 1.7 million foxes in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean red foxes and domestic cats brought to Australia by European colonists kill about 300 million native animals in Australia every year and remain the major driver of past and current extinctions,\u201d lead author of the study, Dr Sean Tomlinson from Curtin University, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur detailed reconstructions show that foxes filled their potential distribution in Australia in just 60 years, providing new historical and temporal data needed to quantify past losses of fauna and help avert future extinctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cities of Joondalup and Wanneroo each contribute $5000 annually to the fox control program in Yellagonga Regional Park, matched by the DBCA.<\/p>\n

The City of Joondalup also increased its feral animal control budget by 31 per cent for 2025\u201326 to $40,774. About $10,000 of that funding is dedicated to rabbit control, with the remainder used for fox control operations. The proposed feral animal control budget for 2026\u201327 is $50,000, a 22 per cent increase.<\/p>\n

\"FeralCamera IconFeral foxes running through Yellagonga Regional Park are now being targeted in a ramped-up effort to safeguard the park\u2019s native wildlife. Credit: JonPauling\/Pixabay<\/p>\n

In 2025, the Friends of Yellagonga Regional Park were granted $45,000 through State election promises to help support increased fox control in the park.<\/p>\n

The two cities, together with the DBCA, have also developed a new kangaroo management action plan.<\/p>\n

The plan outlines key actions to be undertaken to provide protection to kangaroos in the park.<\/p>\n

Actions listed for the next 24 months include fencing upgrades in specific locations identified as needing improvement, new wildlife protection signage, community engagement on protecting wildlife, and various research initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feral foxes running through Yellagonga Regional Park are being targeted in a ramped up effort to safeguard the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,75,503,44,47,46,128,45,504,338],"class_list":["post-534468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-joondalup","tag-news","tag-north","tag-perth","tag-science","tag-wa-news","tag-wanneroo","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534468","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=534468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}