Smart traps and AI baits: The high-tech push to target Australia’s foxes

The draft national threat abatement plan says AI-powered bait stations, image-recognition traps, thermal cameras and remotely monitored devices could make fox control more targeted and effective.

One system, known as a sentinel bait station, uses AI to distinguish between target and non-target animals and restrict access to bait.

Advertisement Invasive Species Council rewilding manager Rob Brewster said the new strategy was an opportunity to bring Australia’s approach to fox control into line with advances in conservation science.

“Foxes have helped drive native animals to extinction and continue to prey on threatened mammals, birds and reptiles across huge areas of the country,” he said.

Governments need to invest in co-ordinated, sustained fox control across the landscapes where our most vulnerable native animals still survive.”