Foxes cause an estimated $227 million in damage nationwide to agriculture and the environment.

Industry and Investment NSW project officer Peter West, based at Orange, said the new FoxScan website can provide information about foxes, and potential control techniques, as well as the damage they can cause.

However he said one of the other key features of the site is allowing landholders to get involved and record their own information.

He said the site allowed mapping of fox sitings as well as opportunities to record any damage such as lamb predation and any control activities.

“A landholder seeing foxes, having predation of lambs and doing control can report that on the site,” he said.

“This is a way to promote awareness of fox problems in the local area.”

Mr West said this could encourage landholders to find out what their neighbours are doing and try to work together, pool resources, and share knowledge and skills.

Researcher with I and I NSW Lynette McLeod has recently finished a project that proves the theory that group baiting has more success than singular baiting.

Ms McLeod said farmers can increase lamb survival rates by up to 20 per cent by coordinating with their neighbours in fox control plans.

Foxscan advocate Suzy Balogh said group control allows for blanket control.

“One landholder can remove foxes but within a short period of time their neighbour’s foxes will filter back in,” Ms Balogh said.

Mr West said people should be thinking about fox control as an asset control function.

“We should be encouraging people to evaluate their fox numbers in terms of population and the damage they’re causing,” he said.

The website allows this to be quantified.

Mr West said this was also another way to monitor the edges of fox incursion, when foxes are moving into new areas.

The FoxScan website is the second launched, following RabbitScan, under the FeralScan banner.

The websites look at monitoring and mapping the movement of pest animals.

Mr West said some of the next steps in the website involve being able to report sitings of unusual animals such as cane toads or mynah birds.

The site can be found at www.feralscan.org.au.