The Project
Red foxes are one of the most adaptable and wide-spread carnivore species. Foxes wear many hats, in an ecological sense. They play important ecological role as predators on a wide spectrum of species, from insects to medium-sized mammals and birds. They are seed dispersers and disease vectors. They compete with humans for game species and are game species themselves. Foxes depredate domestic animals. Despite, their near ubiquitous presence and cultural prominence, we still need to learn more about their ecology and behavior.
FoxTrack follows wild red foxes through the landscape to get a detailed understanding of their behavior and space use.
1. Understand space use and movement of red foxes in a cultural landscape and thereby aid red fox management.
2. Improve our ability to monitor wildlife at multiple scales.
3. Make telemetry applications less invasive through technological advances.
By fitting foxes with lightweight GPS collars we can follow them through the landscape. The focus of the project is on short-term but intensive monitoring: several thousand GPS positions are collected in a matter of days, giving a glimpse at habitat use and movements in unprecedented detail.
Publications
- Lindsø, L. K., Dupont, P., Rød-Eriksen, L., Andersskog, I. P. Ø., Ulvund, K. R., Flagstad, Ø., … & Eide, N. E. (2022). Estimating red fox density using non-invasive genetic sampling and spatial capture–recapture modelling. Oecologia, 198(1), 139-151.
- Bischof, R., Gjevestad, J. G. O., Ordiz, A., Eldegard, K., & Milleret, C. (2019). High frequency GPS bursts and path-level analysis reveal linear feature tracking by red foxes. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-13.
NMBU and the Norwegian Environment Agency