A fox on the hunt. Photos: NPWS, Urban Feral Control.
Nick Patrizi of Urban Feral Control devised his groundbreaking system for controlling feral animals 13 years ago. It remains unique in Australia. His top-class shooting skills complemented by thermal cameras and AI technology, plus the oversight of a spotter, makes it the most humane and safe way to dispatch foxes, along with feral deer and pigs.
He has been contracted by councils to control rabbits and is an integral part of National Parks and Wildlife Service’s (NPWS) effort to protect shorebirds along the South Coast. Private landowners also use him.
“As long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed hunting,” Nick said.
From a young age he trapped foxes and rabbits on his father’s trout farm in Wyangla. Nick and his family moved to the Batemans Bay area in 1999.
In 2014 Eurobodalla Shire Council approached him. Rabbits on council land were getting into people’s backyards and burrowing holes everywhere. Nick suggested a few solutions.
“I volunteered my time,” Nick said. “We needed to prove I could do it and it was safe and humane.”
He had to go to a lot of trouble to get thermal cameras. “The suppliers wanted to know everything about you, and you couldn’t on-sell them,” he said. “We were one of the first in Australia to have a hand-held unit.”
Nick Patrizi of Urban Feral Control.
He started doing it part-time alongside his earthmoving business. It grew from there as word spread and people could see the results through feral animal counts before and after.
Soon NPWS contacted him to see if he could help protect shorebirds’ eggs. AI was just coming into use.
“We identified the birds and put cameras over the nests and found that foxes were the major culprit,” he said. “It was a real eye-opener.”
NPWS has contracted him since 2015. He covers a huge area, from Pretty Beach, near Durras, to the Victorian border and inland as far as Goulburn.
He mostly works along the coast but his work can take him into remote areas without mobile phone reception for days on end.
“I try to use only the most accurate rifles and ammunition but there are variables like the wind or a blade of grass,” he said. “We take our time, so they are dispatched humanely.”
He has a spotter accompany him. “I have a thermal screen and so does my driver so he can see if there is anything else there,” Nick said. “He is my overwatch to ensure target species are identified. It is a system that no one else in Australia has, to be honest.”
Nick takes time-stamped photos.
When a fox is particularly elusive, Nick goes without showers. “I like to smell like the bush and rub on tea tree oil.”
It can be stressful work.
“I have a limited amount of time and limited kill zone that we have to get the animal into,” he said. “It is a game and sometimes they know you are after them. You have to take the wind into account because if they smell you, they won’t come out and the wind can change through the night.”
On one occasion council and NPWS had evidence that foxes from the golf course were threatening shorebirds at Batemans Bay Marina. Someone told Nick that the foxes were sticking their heads into lomandra every afternoon. Nick discovered a school kid was throwing his leftover peanut butter sandwiches into the lomandra.
“It wasn’t just one fox. There were three of them and it was a race to see who got the sandwich first,” he said. It vindicated Nick’s belief that humans can train any animal to do things.
Nick said trapping and 1080 could be used in certain conditions “but shooting is one of the most humane ways to dispatch them, and you have evidence, so the results are instant”.
He takes time-stamped photos. The dead foxes are buried or disposed of thoughtfully.
“They do a lot of damage stealing eggs and I have shot foxes in orchards taking persimmons,” Nick said. “I shot one once while it was attacking a swamp wallaby. They are loners so are more vulnerable than kangaroos.”
Apart from small marsupials, foxes also hunt birds and lizards. “They claim you are saving 200 native wildlife a year if you take out a fox.”
