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Captive fox body odour samples needed for study

Alex Carthey is a PhD student at the University of New South Wales. She is studying naiveté in native mammals towards introduced predators such as foxes, cats and wild dogs.

Her PhD comprises field components testing for recognition of and response to predator odours by wild bush rats and bandicoots, and will also incorporate a chemical profiling of the predator odours in the lab.

To this end, she is searching for odour donors and is having a lot of trouble finding captive foxes.

“I need fresh urine, faecal and body odour samples - which are collected by a simple method of placing a clean dry cotton bath towel in the animal’s sleeping area for two weeks, then storing it in the freezer until I can collect it and bring it back to uni. This collection method is very non-invasive, but does mean that I need access to captive foxes rather than shot carcasses or similar.”

“I have samples for almost all of the predators I need to use, except for foxes,” said Alex.

If anyone has captive foxes and might be able to help Alex out, please contact her on 02 9385 1153 or email a.carthey@unsw.edu.au

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