Jazz on the trail of Phillip Island’s fox

PHILLIP Island Nature Parks has thrown everything they have at one sly fox, for more than a month now, and still, they don’t have it.

Either the fox swam back across the Narrows to San Remo and disappeared or it’s making good use of the Island’s 10,000 hectares to stay out of sight.

But, according to CEO of Nature Parks, Catherine Basterfield, they’re not giving up.

They can’t afford to. One fox can kill 30 penguins in a single night, not to mention threatening Phillip Island’s budding colony of Eastern Barred Bandicoots. There’s a lot at stake.

But they do have a fox-hunting specialist on their side, an English Springer Spaniel named Jazz.

Speaking on Gippsland ABC Radio last Thursday, Ms Basterfield said the search wouldn’t stop for the long weekend.

“Unfortunately, not yet, our team is still out there working tirelessly in the field to try and catch the sly fox,” she said.

“We do have some great technology these days that help us try to catch it but some of the old methods are still used. So, there are some late nights for the team, getting about where its regular haunts are and trying to catch it on the run.”

They do have Jazz.

“We do we've got Jazz who’s an English Springer Spaniels. She has been working with the nature parks since 2014. So jazz was one of the dogs that helped us eliminate foxes on Phillip Island in the first place. And yes, she’s back to work on Phillip Island, helping us get rid of this pesky fox that's come back on.

“It’s exciting for Jazz, but she’s always kept her skills up outside of Phillip Island. So, she's been working with us but working on the Anderson Peninsula and helping our conservation partners on other reserves around Victoria.

“So, she's also one of the dogs that’s made sure that foxes didn't come back onto Phillip Island or that we knew about them if they did.

“While she's great at detecting foxes when they're here, she's also good at helping us ensure they're not here.”

And how does she do that.

“She's trying to detect fox scents. She works with our handler Craig, they’re really combing the island around the tracks and around the edges of the reserves and she's trained when she detects a fox scent to sit where she detects that scent.

So, often she'll detect scats from foxes or prints and foot-scents.

“She can alert our team to where things are and she sits and waits until her handler Craig can come and investigate further.”

And while they haven’t got the fox yet, Ms Basterfield is convinced the PINP team will track it down, and soon.