For The Record: Week 3

A wild dog and fox attract my attention

(July 15 - 21, 2013)

By Ned Makim

The Winters can be cold at home but the bush can be surprisingly bright.
The wattle has come into bloom a few weeks early and makes a colourful backdrop.

A bit of rain put a dampener on the hunting plans this week. I never complain about the rain and often hunt in the wet but my main block (Happy Valley) carries a lot of clay and is steep in parts...a recipe for trouble in a downpour.
Instead I went south to check on my second pig trap and see if there was any more information about the wild dog. This spot is in the granite country and is all grazing with a bit of oats to help stock through the Winter. It also runs close to some wild public land that sheds the odd wild dog into the open. I'll call this place Dog Trap to help identify it in his project and keeps it's actual ID private.

Anyway, down to Dog Trap to see the landholder with a few bags of cracked corn on board to freshen up the pig trap. It's another top hinged door trap just outside the oats crop and so far not a single pig has come near it. The landholder has don a bit of shooting so the pigs are a bit stirred up but I'm happy to have the trap there just to maintain access.
In other news he has created a dead cattle dump with three old cancer eyed cows so if the trap doesn't bring in the pigs, the carcases should. Normally they would take about five days to really bring in the swine but in Winter time that cane take two weeks. We'll see.
He also told me he'd seen the wild dog again. It was only a few days ago and in the same spot. Once the predicted rain passes, it will be worth setting a trap for two for the dog. The cows are due to calve in the next month or so and the dog's potential impact is significant.

Back up to Happy Valley east of Inverell and the rain had definitely made things slippery. It wasn't so much boggy as greasy and I appreciated the Max-Trax again, I can tell you. They worked.

The Max-Trax gave me the grip to get up the slippery slopes.

On the oats crop again and Dave jumped and took the young dog Alice (his daughter out of Mary) with him. They ranged out in front, Dave with his nose in the air and Alice just along for the ride. They went over a rise and out of sight. I was still driving the boundary and noted the dogs had not reappeared out of the fold they'd entered. When I topped a little rise I saw why. Both were holding a rough little boar just inside the boundary and outside the nearby blackberry bushes. Alice had been a hot and cold pup but this time she as attached and showed evidence of five decent hits from the boar. Nothing serious by any means but enough to test a young dog's will and she'd passed that test.

Dave and the little boar.

Another two little pigs were found on the ridge above the oats and they too were taken out of the equation. So, three pigs for the morning and back home in time for work.

Later that night I was awoken by Alice barking. At night this often indicated a fox was in the yard, attracted by the smell of the meat from the day's hunt. I decided I'd set a leg hold trap and see if I could get rid of the annoyance to my household and threat to the native animals that live nearby. The fox doesn't visit every night and sometimes goes a month between visits but I wanted something in the ground if it wandered back in looking for a feed.
I used a food bait in what's called a dirt hole set which simulates a small burrow or cache of food. The trap is buried not far in front of the lure.

The fox trap is just in front of the disturbed soil holding the lure.

WEEK 3:

Pest animals removed    3
Free range dog food      42kgs
Kilometres travelled        291kms

PROGRESSIVE TOTAL
Pest animals removed    13 pigs
Kilometres travelled         1112kms