Melbourne Zoo fox attack: Vulnerable animals killed

A European red fox has been on a killing streak in Melbourne Zoo, attacking long-nosed potoroos and brushtail possums after breaching tall brick walls topped with barbed wire.

The invasive predator was deliberately introduced into Australia in the mid-1800s, by settlers keen to continue the sport of fox hunting.

But the red fox rapidly established itself in the wild, and the Government says the animal has since played a “major role” in the decline of native species – including ground-nesting birds, small mammals such as the greater bilby, and reptiles such as green turtles.

The latest attack – a decade after a fox mauled 14 penguins to death at the same zoo – illustrates that it is not just wild animals at risk from the wily European predator.

Melbourne Zoo said three long-nosed potoroos, a species deemed vulnerable to extinction, were killed after a red fox broke into the facility. The predator also stalked wild, free-roaming animals in the zoo’s grounds, including brushtail possums.

The zoo told Yahoo News Australia that the incident had taken place “several weeks ago”, and it remains unclear how the fox managed to break in.

A spokesman said: “Additional monitoring and security measures have been implemented, as have regular, ongoing risk assessments by a pest specialist. This is proving effective with no further evidence of incursions by foxes.”

The zoo did not clarify how the fox was caught, but said it was “humanely dealt with” by contractors.

It is not just Australian zoos that have to contend with fox attacks.

In 2022, the world’s oldest-known rockhopper penguin, known as Mrs Wolowitz, met a grisly end when a fox broke into her enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo. She was 35, having lived to double her life expectancy.

The same year, 25 flamingos were killed and three injured after a wild fox chewed through a fence to infiltrate their outdoors pen at Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington DC. It was the worst attack at the zoo in two decades.

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