Long Reef Golf Club forced to hunt down undesexed foxes released for a tracking program
A project that captures and releases undesexed feral foxes has been defended by a Sydney council — but a golf club isn’t happy about the risks this poses for wildlife that call the course home.
Manly
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A PROJECT capturing and releasing undesexed feral foxes has been defended by Northern Beaches Council.
Acting general manager for environment and infrastructure Steve Lawler said the council’s involvement in a joint project to monitor fox movements on the northern beaches — delivered in partnership with the University of Western Sydney, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Royal Botanic Gardens — was to provide a better understanding of the distances travelled by the pest to improve eradication practices.
Mr Lawler’s defence of the project, delivered in December 2016, follows the eradication and discovery of a mature male fox, with a tracking collar around its neck, at Long Reef Golf Club in May.
“(As part of the project) university researchers collared and released three foxes on the northern beaches to monitor their movements,” he said.
“No foxes were introduced into this area — they were simply released as they were tagged.”
Despite council monitoring the feral species responsible for the countless loss of wildlife, Long Reef Golf Club superintendent Peter Donkers said the council could have at least desexed the animals prior to releasing them.
In the past 30 years the Long Reef Golf Club team had worked tirelessly to transform the course into a wildlife refuge, Mr Donkers said. It had since become home to a wide variety of native animals and birds.
“I am just so disappointed that council would allow an experiment like this to take place, especially being so close to an area with penguins and other native wildlife,” Mr Donkers said.
“We’ve lost bandicoots, a penguin, possums and native birds because of the foxes. The least they could do was desex them.”
Vertebrate pest controller Jason Dimunno, who has regularly worked with Long Reef Golf Club to eradicate foxes and rabbits on the course, said capturing and releasing foxes or even coming into contact with the pest made his job harder.
“The ones that haven’t had human interaction are inquisitive,” he said.
“I never have a problem in eradicating them but it’s the ones that have which are much harder to get.
“They are smart and always wary of humans.”
