How a single fox named ‘Rambo’ outsmarted his human hunters for four years while slaughtering endangered wildlife…and it took an act of nature to bring him down
- Rambo wreaked havoc in a NSW wilderness area for years
For four years, a lone fox named Rambo led countless pursuers on a merry chase, outwitting them every step of the way.
Those on the hunt for the last predator living in a fenced sanctuary for endangered species literally tried everything.
Shooting expeditions. Poisonous bait fell from the sky. Traps carefully hidden in Rambo’s favorite spots.
Even scouring the landscape with sniffer dogs for 55 days didn’t help.
So one can understand why the news of the fox’s demise during a recent flood, exaggerated or not, has left his stalkers feeling elated but also slightly ripped off.
The last picture of Rambo the red fox in the Pilliga State Conservation Area in NSW
James Stevens had two attempts to catch Rambo – two years apart.
“He lives in your head,” said the veteran tracker who spent more than 100 days on Rambo’s trail, covering hundreds of miles on foot.
While he’s overjoyed that the presence of the cunning predator will no longer hold back efforts to redesign NSW’s Pilliga State Conservation Area, he’s bummed he didn’t get the award.
“No one likes to be beaten, especially by something with a brain half your size,” Mr. Stevens laughed.
There’s no question that Rambo was an intelligent beast, but he thinks his life in the hideout was just like Eutopia.
With plenty to eat and no competition, the fox had only one job – to avoid humans – and he got really good at it.
“When they moved a camera or released a new camera, they kind of got one shot of him, but then he knew where that camera was, so he’d avoid it from then on. And it was exactly the same with falls,” Mr. Stevens said.
“He got caught in a trap, within a few feet of it, and then he disappeared and didn’t come back to that area for four, five, six weeks. Until he thought it was safe.’
Wayne Sparrow, of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, helps manage the Pilliga flight project and said Rambo was last captured on camera on Oct. 9.
Ten days later, a great flood swept through, inundating the traps Mr. Stevens had carefully laid along Rambo’s favorite creek line. Another deluge arrived the following month.
The Pilliga State Forrest area is 5,800 acres and is being ‘re-wilded’ with rare species (above)
With no camera trap sightings or other signs of Rambo’s continued presence, a preliminary statement was made on December 2 that he was gone.
Between then and now, intensive surveillance has found no sign of him, not even on any of the 97 cameras that work day and night.
Conservationists also repeatedly raked both sides of the dirt road in the refuge before returning to check for any telltale paw prints.
All that means the authorities are pretty sure Rambo is gone.
This is great news for endangered bilbies and bridled wallabies who have been happily breeding for several years in a securely fenced nesting area, within the wider fenced shelter.
“With Rambo gone, we’ve been able to open the gate to the nesting area and they now have access to the entire 5,800 acre property,” Sparrow said.
Brush-tailed bettongs have also been reintroduced and work may begin later this year on the next species: the plains mouse and Shark Bay bandicoot.
If anyone needs proof of what excluding wild predators can do for native wildlife, one statistic stands out.
“We don’t have foxes now, we haven’t had cats for over three years, we haven’t had goats for over two years and we have no pigs,” Mr Sparrow added.
“And if you look at the yellow-footed antechinus – the most common small mammal – there are now 10 times more inside the enclosure than outside.”