| Parks Victoria and the Department of Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) are collaborating with agencies from the other States and the Commonwealth of Australia in a national program of detailed monitoring and surveillance of the effects of Rabbit Calicivirus Disease (RCD). A component of the Victorian study involves an investigation of possible changes in fox predation upon malleefowl Leipoa ocellata Gould, 1840, in the wake of reduced rabbit abundance caused by RCD. The study entails measurement of overall fox activity post-RCD, measurement of egg loss from malleefowl nests, and an assessment of any observable changes in fox diet. Measures of fox abundance/activity pre- and post- RCD suggest that the level of fox activity has not declined... |
