LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is assisting with gathering data to determine Lincoln’s red fox population.

24-year-old Kyle Dougherty has captured seven red foxes in Nebraska’s capital city.

“I’d never really done this before,” Dougherty said. “It’s the worst animal to learn on. They’re notorious for not going into the box.”

His traps send a signal to his phone once it has been triggered, but it can’t tell him what it caught.

“Sometimes you’re a little anxious walking up to it,” he said. “You can generally tell if it’s a fox; they tend to move around more when you’re walking up to it than a possum.”

The foxes Dougherty manages to capture are released after he and others take blood, fur, and fecal samples. Some have also been fitted with GPS collars.

“We’re trying to get the most complete picture,” Dougherty said. “If we find that there’s a bunch of some particular disease inside the city, then we can use that information to inform if people need to be concerned about it.”

The data being collected will give researchers a better understanding of how many red foxes are in Lincoln, what diseases they carry and their population patterns.

Since January, residents have reported on Dougherty’s Lincoln Fox Project website more than 150 fox sightings — most of them inside city limits.

Dougherty said he hopes to finish trapping by fall, but said he has a challenge ahead of him. He needs 70 foxes for a good sample size.

Animal Control started fielding fox reports last year after a busy summer of coyote sightings and scares near Holmes Lake.