Abstract
1. The red fox Vulpes vulpes is one of the world’s most widespread carnivores. A key to its success has been its broad, opportunistic diet. The fox was introduced to Australia about 150 years ago, and within 30 years of its introduction was already recognised as a threat to livestock and native wildlife.
2. We reviewed 85 fox diet studies (totalling 31693 samples) from throughout the species’ geographic range within Australia. Mammals were a major component of fox diet, being present in 70 ± 19% of samples across n = 160 locations. Invertebrates (38 ± 26% n = 130) and plant material (26 ± 25% n = 123) were also both staple foods and often the dominant food category recorded. Birds (13 ± 11% n = 137) and reptiles (10 ± 15% n = 132) were also commonly reported, while frogs were scarcely represented (1.6 ± 3.6% n = 111) in fox diet studies.
3. Biogeographical differences reveal factors that likely determine prey availability. Diet composition varied with ecosystem, level of vegetation clearing and condition, and climate zone.
4.Sample type (i.e. stomach versus scat samples) also significantly influenced reporting of diet composition. Livestock and frogs were underrepresented in records based on analysis of scats, whereas small mammals (native rodents, dasyurid marsupials, and bats) were more likely to be recorded in studies of scats than in studies of stomach contents.
5. Diet varied seasonally, reflecting activity patterns of prey species and food availability. This synthesis also captures temporal shifts in fox diet over 70 years (1951–2020), as foxes have switched to consuming more native species in the wake of successful broadscale biological control of the invasive European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus.
6. Diet analyses, such as those summarised in this review, capture the evidence required to motivate for greater control of foxes in Australia. This synthesis also highlights the importance of integrated pest species management to meet biodiversity conservation outcomes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 508-527 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Mammal Review |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 27 May 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Thanks to Dr Peter Brown, CSIRO Australia, for providing access to unpublished data on the incidence of house mouse plagues 2002–2020, a project that has been funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), to Dr Tim Doherty for providing additional detail on dingo and cat diet, and to the reviewers who provided constructive feedback on a previous version of this manuscript. Funding for this work was provided by: Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (Threatened Species Recovery Hub; AMS‐W and JCZW), Australian Research Council (CRD), Invasive Animals CRC (GS), Queensland Government Blueprint for the Bush Program (MNG and JS), Australian Geographic, the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, and Deakin University’s Centre for Integrative Ecology (ET and EGR).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Mammal Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.