Historical information

This photograph depicts people attending the 'Spotlight on Fox' event watching a demonstration. The event was conducted as part of an awareness campaign highlighting damage done to farm and domestic animals and native wildlife in April 2004. This date is suggested by the photograph's position in the 2004-2005 Wooragee Landcare Group Coordinator's Report folder. A note accompanying the item suggests an alternative date of February 2004, however.

This event raised awareness about the impacts of foxes in rural areas and provided practical training in techniques to control their populations. Flyers contained in the parent folder suggest that baiting may have been agreed as a method of fox control as the event depicted was followed by a two week baiting campaign a fortnight later.

Pictured in this photograph, left to right: unknown; Sue Berwick ; Jerry Alexander; rest unidentified. A note accompanying the items suggests the photograph may have been taken by Karen Bowley or Maree Missen.

Regional areas like Wooragee are susceptible to fox attacks due to the availability of food such as rubbish, scraps, native wildlife and livestock. Foxes can have a huge impact on native wildlife and domestic life as they are known to chew through irrigation systems, dig-up and defecate in gardens, raid rubbish bins and harass other domestic animals. Ground-dwelling native species are particularly susceptible to predation by foxes, which when combined with loss of habitat can endanger these species. Affected species include Speckled Warblers, Plovers, Diamond Firetails, Spotted Quail-Thrushes, Turquoise Parrots, Dunnarts, Bandicoots, Phascogales, skinks, geckos and legless lizards.

Significance

This photograph is significant as an example of awareness raising and threat control programs undertaken by Wooragee Landcare Group in the 2000s in Indigo Shire.

Physical description

Landscape coloured photograph printed on gloss paper

Inscriptions & markings

Reverse:
WAN NA 0ANA2N0 NNN 0 8743 / [PRINTED]
(No. 13) / 259