I was out hunting yesterday and saw this enormous goanna (I thought about 4', my son thought probably 5 foot).

Late in the afternoon, I saw a fox follow along where we had seen it walking, then the fox just wandered off continuing to look for food elsewhere. Never really stopped to think about it, but I guess a fox would be pretty wary about taking on a goanna, particularly a big one. Seeing as they usually hunt alone, the fox would certainly have had an interesting time tangling with the goanna we saw yesterday!

But has anyone seen a fox knock over a goanna? I guess they'd have little trouble with a small one.

Some of those larger goannas are impressive for sure.
When I lived out in Cobar a few years ago some of the lizards out there had to be seen to be believed.
5+ feet long no problems, and staight up the nearest tree if threatened. And the claws on their feet.......jeeeez .
There's no way a fox could handle something like that, even the smaller ones IMO.

The foxes I see around my place here in SA are hunting mainly insects, small rodents, reptiles and birds or simply scavenging for a feed.
I even find the odd fox turd around the place that is just chock full of grape pips.
Go figure...

Wine afficianado?

We should check the fox density in the Barossa Valley.

LD

Very high fox density here. It's pretty easy country for them.
Lots of people are using 1080 around the place for fox control and I've shot 4 on my smallish acres in the last 12 months alone and I still see plenty wandering around the place from time to time, usually on the way to work in the mornings when I don't have a rifle with me........aint it always the way...haha

I think they are very thick in many areas around Victoria this year, despite the poor conditions for farming and the shocking drought which should have kept their food sources (like insects, frogs, small rodents etc) low.

There's a couple of different groups around here are over 300 skins (that's just the ones they've
kept) from spotlighting.

I've seen fox scat that have been chock full of what looks like citrus (orange or lemon) pips in them. There are few lambs around here now so they musy must be scavanging well for other tucker.

Big debate around about fresh bate compared to Foxoff too. Many cockies don't reckon Foxoff works too well.

Saw a fox and a wedgetail eyeing each other off from about 15 metres once . Think they were trying to decide who was going to eat who . Not sure who I'd back at ground level but put the eagle in the air and a fox would be easy prey .

The grapes were probably sour anyway ...



analog_peninsula

Grapes? Dont you fellas remember AESOPS FABLES?

Aesop's Fables is a great way to have a reading class with the Grade 3 and 4's, I find. They love some of the messages in the stories. One day we were discussing honesty (forget which fable) and some of the comments about what their parents often did really got me. Very hard to keep a straight face.


About two years ago, up near Menindee, I took the head off a fox that was feeding on a dead 'roo from a couple of hundred yards away. There were a couple of wedgies sitting in a tree about 25 yards from the dead 'roo and headless fox and it took them two or three minutes to decide that there were safer places to be queuing for a meal. I guess they hadn't been shot at before and I don't shoot wedgies (I'd be very inclined to turn the culprit in if i saw someone else shoot one). If the wedgies had been really hungry, i somehow doubt they would have been sitting idly by in a tree.

I just thought that day too, Bushchook, that the wedgies should have been able to grab the fox for sure and take him up a few hundred feet for some sky diving practice. I don't know that it would be so one-sided on the ground either, though.

Ross