“To those counting extinctions, watch the impact of the deliberate introduction of foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and subsequent failures to control them in Tasmania for a species extinction or two over the next couple of human generations.
This was the last significant safety zone for Australia’s unique small mammals and will surely allow some wonderful peer reviwed papers that describe the decline as we sit back and watch it happen. We are about to see the final stages of the march to extinction of a vast array of unique animals,” wrote Linton Staples* at an earlier blog post on mammalian extinctions.
According to the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service:
“The European red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was introduced to mainland Australia as early as the 1850’s. Since that time the fox has inflicted enormous impacts on the native wildlife of Australia, being implicated in the extinction of many native animals. Indeed, Australia’s apalling record of mammal extinctions in the last 200 years – the worst in the world – is in no small part due to the fox.
…The fox represents the single most devastating threat to Tasmania’s native mammals and birds. This island State is recognised as a national and international fauna haven due to the lack of foxes, but should the species become established here all of Tasmania’s native land animals would be at risk.
Threatened and high conservation significance species at risk [if the fox establishes in Tasmania] would include:
eastern barred bandicoot
Tasmanian bettong
long nosed potoroo
eastern quoll
southern brown bandicoot
long tailed mouse
velvet furred rat
New Holland mouse
hooded plover
little tern
fairy tern
ground parrot
ground thrush
painted button quail
great crested grebe
green and gold bell frog
tussock skink
glossy grass skink.
The Tasmanian pademelon and Tasmanian bettong, both of which thrive in Tasmania, are now extinct on the mainland because of the fox. The mainland eastern barred bandicoot has been reduced to a mere 200 surviving individuals because of the fox. The young of unique species such as the Tasmanian devil, spotted tail quoll that are left unattended in dens are highly vulnerable to fox predation.
More widespread species like ducks, shorebirds, ground nesting birds, blue tongue lizards, mountain dragons, skinks and frogs are all highly at risk.”
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* Linton is the Managing Director of Animal Control Technologies which sells FOXOFF® fox bait.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
People,
This is an ideal occasion to introduce a radical notion, one which, as far as I know, has never before been proposed. That is, that species from everywhere should be introduced everywhere.
Some will thrive, some will fail. But the jumble will radically increase the biodiversity of ecosystems everywhere, as everything scrambles to readjust, or to discover newly-created environmental niches.
One way or another, every species on the planet “invaded” a place it hadn’t been before. So, viva biodiversity! Turn it all loose!
You know for sure that the world will not be entirely overtaken by cane toads, foxes and genetically modified canola, thrusting humans to the beaches and beyond in their prolific rush. Only people who believe that the planet must be preserved in a museum-like condition would shiver in fear of such a notion.
People who believe in the “natural balance of nature” must perforce be glad to join in a project to introduce all species into all environments, allowing them to thrive as they may. Does not beneficent Nature balance herself? Should not all species be allowed to thrive in whatever environment suits them the best?
They would not be allowed among crops, if they like to eat crops, but otherwise, why not have an egalitarian approach to species?
Schiller.
There are reports that some are deliberately trying to introduce foxes to Tasmania, for whatever perverted reason, but that the main way the foxes are getting there is via shipping and docks.
It is also worth noting that the best defence against foxes in saving threatened species is not the green movement and associated latte swillers of our major cities. Rather, the best control of the fox can be provided by encouraging the much maligned “Red Neck” and his gun.
They are the only people who have had the brilliant insight to turn a vital ecological chore into a fun filled bonding ritual. Take a few country lads, add ute, guns, bullets and beer, take down your keep out sign, and a serious ecological problem will be brought to heel faster than you can say “species recovery plan”.
The only problem is that certain interests have spent so much time and effort in demonising them that helping their tormenters would be the last thing they would ever do. As ye sow ..
Here in Sweden we have problems with animal rights activists who “liberate” fur animals from their farms, problems especially with minks. They have ruined many sea bird colonies, and driving many species to extinction. Ornithologists are especially angry with these activists who don’t have any support from the green movement.
Why don’t the Tasmanian’s promote fox hunts to the newly outlawed English country folk. That way we can boost inbound tourism, get right up Sen. Bob Browns nose, reinforce some metrocentric stereotypes, AND provide a valuable ecological service. Not too certain about the over supply of “hooray Henries” though.
By the way Ann, I grew up surrounded by Swedish neighbours who came to Australia after WWII and rented land from us to grow bananas. It was actually called the “Fin Village” despite the fact that only the first arrival was from Finland. The rest had classic “Aussie” names like Lillthores, Soderholm, Ostring Lillgestrom and Nylund. There were times when us kids would come back home after a day spent swimming and wandering with the mob to discover that we were speaking english with a distinctly Swedish cadence. A second cousin married one (as you do) and has lived in Sweden for nearly 30 years.
So it goes.
In my opinion, Linton has raised a really important current issue while both Ian and Schiller have responded with trivial comment suggesting a complete disregard for the unique ecology of Tasmania.
Hi Ian,
That was interesting to hear, Aussies with a Swedish accent!
Hmm, but regarding the fox hunt, you would need hounds as well, so how would the rest of the wildlife act?
Swedish version of fox hunt, you have a rider with a fox tail , that the riders hunt… very unbloody, still we are a hunting people, at least 100 000 moose are killed in the annual hunt…
Definitively a hunt of the red fox is needed IMO,
it doesn’t belong in Tasmania, maybe wildlife authorities should give a license to hunters to kill the red fox.
Hi Linton,
Is your company involved in baiting projects in Tasmania?
Put a $2,000 bounty on each fox pelt and locals will be more likely to hunt them out.
But one of the lingering problems that have come out of the tightened gun laws since the Port Arthur Massacre has been to make “opportunistic kills” a thing of the past.
Guns can no longer be kept behind the back window of the ute as in the past. They must now be kept in a secured and locked container with ammunition kept seperately in another locked location.
Most sightings of foxes are purely by chance and if the rifle is not at the ready then the opportunity to shoot them is lost. These days the gun laws make it almost impossible to get a shot away in time. Indeed, the gun laws are clearly designed to discourage even those with very sound reasons for having a gun, from getting and keeping one.
And as most sightings are out on the roads, the gun laws prevent you from firing at a fox anyway. In most cases they can only be fired on the designated farm of the licensee.
So my advice to all those people who thought demonising law abiding gun owners was an appropriate response to the problem of inadequate supervision of the mentally ill is, you rammed the solution down our necks so you created the problem. So how about you fix it yourself, and pay for it yourself.
Ian, your last paragraph leaves a lot to be desired. I am sure the loved ones of shooting victims and those of the accused could argue with you on a few fronts there.
Unfortunately the anti fur fashionistas (like PETA) have knocked a hole in thje pelt industry, years ago it was quite a business buying fox furs from hunters in NSW.
Recently recreational hunting has been reintroduced in NSW being rebadged as “Conservational Hunting”, some greenies are unhappy
http://newcastle.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=columns&story_id=492021&category=Columns&m=7&y=2006
“Conservation hunting programs now in place on 142 State Forests
A total of 142 state forests are now officially declared under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act for conservation hunting programs.
The roll-out has occurred in three stages, commencing in March 2006 with 31 state forests, a further 66 forests in June and the latest declarations occurring last Friday (14th) for a further 45 state forests. Once Crown Land area (Grabine Lakeside State Park) was also ceclared in May 2006.
Since conservation hunting commenced on public land in NSW, Game Council has issued close to 1600 Restricted NSW Game Hunting Licences (R-Licences).
In that time, licensed hunters have officially reported culling close to 650 feral animals from State forests, mainly goats, wild deer, foxes and pigs.
“The result is very pleasing, given the new licensing system only took effect in March this year. Despite claims by the anti-hunting groups, conservation hunters can make a contribution to feral animal control,’’ Mr Boyle said.
LINK TO DECLARED AREAS: http://www.gamecouncil.nsw.gov.au/portal.asp?p=DPL
http://www.invasiveanimals.com/index.php?id=120
I agree that foxes should definintely be hunted out of Tasmania. The government should be pouring millions towards it right now. The combination of Foxes and agricultural and forestry practice will likely cause the extinction of more native animals in Tasmania.
but..
Would the Red Fox (itself)nescessarilly pose a greater threat to Tasmanian Wildlife than the Tasmanian Tiger did, if there weren’t already the other threats of poor agricultural and forestry practice?
The Tasmanian Tiger was a skilled hunter which is why the settlers chose to wipe it out in the first place; that and also just because they were red-neck yobos who loved to kill things.
Michael – who could you blame if it weren’t redneck yobos. Talk about a whipping boy.
For your information 25 or so years ago fox pelts fetched 30 – 50 dollars depending on condition. A lot of people around the snowy (people you would identify as redneck yobos but I know as ordinary decent people) supplemented their income by surprisingly large amounts hunting foxes.
Animal activists campaigned so successfully that the wearing of fur coats became ideaologically unsound and consequently the market disappearedin the mid eighties. As a result there was no incentive to go out hunting, fox numbers boomed with a consequent negative effect on native wildlife and there was a lot of bleating about why the locals weren’t hunting the foxes any more as if it were their responsibility for feral control when it was really the npws and state forests responsibility. So who caused the decimation in native fauna? The hunters, the greenies, the land managers?
Mary,
You presume a lot about me. But failed to see my point at all.
This whole concept (foxes cause of extincition of mammals) is a simplification of the facts. Tasmania did have the Tasmanian Tiger which would certainly have filled a predatory role, similar to a Red fox before it was annihilated. The extinction of native animals from the mainland came about because of the combination of predation and habitat loss/fragmentation (caused by agriculture).
The trouble with any financial incentive to hunt is that sustainable hunters know they have to sustain their target species. So unless there is a viable market for the fur, which will compensate for the bounty costs and ensure it will go on for ever, this is simply throwing extra subsidies at farmers.
Ian’s wonderful suggestion of a $2000 bounty would be a great incentive to breed foxes in Tasmania or import more from the mainland.
I think the farmers should be prepared to hunt the foxes themselves to save them from $$$$ future losses to their sheep industries.
Maybe it’s time they did their bit to make up for the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger, which they caused.
Presumably the “red-necked yobos” Michael is referring to were those that didn’t stop to think of the consequences, ie the extinction of the Thylacine, hence his use of the term. I would say there would be a difference between reproductive success and general behaviour between Thylacines (a marsupial) and canids, as well as the fact that perhaps Tasmanian devils were more in competition with Thylacines and there was more of a ‘natural balance’ established.
Mary, was your point concerning the money farmers made from shooting foxes (and that they can’t rely on this source of income any more), or the fact that shooting actually can control fox numbers?
I am not convinced that only shooting foxes (in Tasmania) will see the problem solved. Selective baiting and the development of new biological control programs (if ever), together with skilled hunters carrying out shooting may go some way to solving the problem, but there will always be ways for these animals to get to Tasmania. A more dedicated and long-term effort by all those concerned is paramount. For the situation to now be this out of hand is very sad indeed, particularly given the fragile state of the Tasmanian devil population.
Michael,
and that farmers are evil monsters responsible for all extinctions isn’t a simplification of facts?
The problem is you and most greens want to blame someone not solve a problem or at least deal with it.
The other problem is time scale and history. Yes thylacines are extinct. They were hunted by farmers – whether or not it was the only factor in their extinction I do not know but it was a hundred years ago in a different time and culture and dare I say it when information about native animals was not great nor was it so easily accesible as now.
The point is we are talking about foxes now. Stoning farmers for past culpability isn’t going to deal with the problem.
Foxes are feral predators – farmers particularly sheep farmers kill them on their property. Most foxes do not live on farms but only predate on farm stock.
A lot of foxes actually live in National Parks and State Forests. Most foxes rely for about 2/3rds of their food on native animals so my point would be it is not entirely farmers solely responsible for dealing with foxes. In fact it could be argued that farmers provide a public service dealing with the foxes they do kill.
– the point I was making was that when fox pelts were marketable their numbers were kept down by hunting ( not necessarily by farmers but by rural people (eg mechanics, council workers, farmers sons, dozer operators) who saw a market opportunity.
When the financial incentive was removed (by city people who really cared about animals) there was no financial incentive for fox hunting – the fox population boomed and the native fauna was stressed. It took a few years for land managers ie NPWS and state forests to work out what was going on – I would suggest the farmers were busy dealing with foxes on their own properties regardless of the price of a fox pelt.
The point is city people have just as much if not more responsibility for fox predation since they are the ones who have so much say over publicly owned land management but bear none of the cost or .
In the case of Tasmania I would suggest any fox found on a famr will be dealt with.
the problem will be the ones on publicly owned land which despite the greens hysteria and media bleatings comprises the vast majority of Tasmania.
Victoria had a fox bounty for about 12 months recently – 198,000 foxes were killed. Now the bounty has been removed – one of the problems I have heard is that the foxes weren’t all Victorians – some were caught over the border – personally a dead fox is a good fox regardless of what side of the border it came from.
The problem is that removing the bounty means numbers will bounce back ( I’m pretty certain they already have for I’ve seen a lot of foxes in broad daylight recently and heaps killed on the side of the road all a good indicator that the numbers all 198000 of them have bounced back.)
It is disturbing to hear that foxes have reached Tasmania. How they got there is now irrelevant. Getting rid of them is the priority. That will need multiple methods, foxes are clever critters.
Michael’s unpleasant blame/disdain of farmers, while unhelpful, actually higlights an important point. Farmers will have to be the most important human resource for eliminating foxes. It cannot be done without huge co-operation from the people actually on the ground.
Time for farmers from all over Australia to start comparing notes on dealing with foxes. Some have developed very smart, cost effective strategies.
Like this:
Select a spot as a feeding station on the farm. Then dump every dead animal, including chooks, offal and fish, at that spot. Any foxes in the area will soon learn that it is a likely, easy spot for a feed, and make a habit of checking it.
Then after a set period of time, bait that spot. Pick up the baits early next morning before the birds get going. We do have a poison, deadly to mammals, to which marsupials are fairly tolerant.
For lambing, the strategy is to bait a few days before the lambs start to drop. That cleans out the foxes in the area, and it takes about a month for a new lot of foxes to establish in that territory. So you keep the feeding station going, then bait again.
If this sort of trick is used within say a 30 km radius of fox sightings, with most landowners on board, it could make a big difference.
Any more clever strategies?
If I were to describe Michael as a bombed out suburban barbie worlder with a penchant for gratuitous planet salvation my post would be censored for offensive content but it seems “redneck yobbo” is seen in metrocentric circles as some sort of rudimentary badge of sophistication. As if urban enlightenment is achieved by the perfection of one’s sneer.
But if michael had even a tenuous grasp of foxes place in the Australian environment he would understand that the major difference between Thylacenes and Foxes is that the latter can adapt to achieve maximum exploitation of urban, rural and forested landscapes while the Thylacene clearly does not.
One study of foxes occupying a large used car tyre dump found that the resulting food supply from rats etc enabled the dominant male to become polygamous, attending to two females in seperate dens, and each female producing two litters each year. So your suggestion that this species might simply re-occupy the niche left by the Thylacene is dangerous ignorance.
And Libby, I stand by my comment on guns used as a scapegoat for the Port Arthur massacre. The killer had a long history of mental illness but remained under minimal supervision to ensure that his medication was maintained. But rather than blame the people who promoted and implemented the policy of “mainstreaming” (not treating) mental patients, it was far easier and cheaper to take a stick to gun owners. But schizophrenics are still drifting in and out of medication and still drifting in and out of highly dangerous condition but, at least, the bureaucrats have put sufficient distance between their actions and their liability to ensure that blame cannot be sheeted back to its cause.
But this is another issue. Given the ease that Michael can insult farmers and sneer at their contribution to ecologically beneficial outcomes, I hereby call on all farmers to cease culling feral pests unless their own economic interests are under threat. If he and his kind seriously think our contribution is all negative, he can fix the fox problem.
And you can fight your own bushfires too.
I wonder what effect the huge influx of Autumn lamb carcases has on the foxes breeding capacity across much of rural Australia, as they fatten themselves up just prior to breeding?
I wonder what scientific base the “2/3 diet of native animals” comes from, surely this varies according to land-use. Some of the densest fox infestations are in the heart of the city and what native animals are they going to live on there.
Ian I don’t believe the fox will fill the niche left by the Thylacine, because that niche no longer exists, thanks to agriculture and forestry.
The only way criss crossed issues such as this will ever be solved is when the agriculturalists feel some guilt for what they have done to the world and start begging the rich city folk for some help.
Hi Michael,
Foxy eats anything between roedeer kids, hares, field mice , birds, they are keen on magpies, to garbage , berries and even earth worms. This is the case in Europe.
Helen I agree with you about cooperation between all land managers. I also like the idea of the feeding station but I think it would take a lot of other strategies in combination and even then it might not work completely. The critters seem to addapt a la Ian’s eg very very easily.
Maybe it is time for a national bounty regardless of state borders. I’d be very interested to see just how many pelts were handed in. It would give some indication of population numbers.
The other thing is there needs to be a public information campaign to dare I say it “Edcuate” city people about the damage foxes do. A lot of work needs ot be done to offset the European greens campaigns re their fox which may well be appropriate to their environment but isn’t appropriate to ours. Their “facts” about foxes and fox hunting is simply imported into Australia (without regard to the fact that it is not a native of this country but a pest) polluting minds already prejudiced against rural people.
The bottom line is that humans are the only predators foxes have in Australia. So baiting, hunting,trapping, poisoning, biological control throw the lot at them I doubt it will ever eliminate them on the mainland but it should put pressure on their population and take pressure off native animals.
The problem is the effort has to be consistent and sustained. Otherwise we might at well just throw our hands in the air and accept Schiller’s point – the successful native fauna will adapt to a certain population of foxes any way. The weaker ones will be or are already extinct the stronger ones will breed to suit the predators and vice versa. Acclimatisation without the societies I guess.
How established is the population in Tas? Is it too late to stop them getting established?
With my humble knowledge of Australian wildlife I checked out the species that are threatened in Tasmania if the fox will be established.
Maybe , and I just say maybe, the only species in my opinion that can be saved is the great crested grebe, which lives together with foxes in the eco system in Europe as well.
“The other thing is there needs to be a public information campaign to dare I say it “Edcuate” city people about the damage foxes do.”
Those city folk that give a rats are already pretty much educated about the damage foxes and cats do to native wildlife (we read about it over our skinny lattes and watch Discovery channel, not to mention hear Tim Lowe speak at the Hilton). Amazingly enough, we do a pretty good job of fox control in the city. Apart from the numerous road kills, there are baiting programs all arouhd the place. I have just passed an area that has Foxoff, and a big sign to keep precious mutts away.
“How established is the population in Tas? Is it too late to stop them getting established?”
Depends on who you talk to, but seems they are pretty much established.
I realise I will be crucified for this, but there is also a feral dog problem in some areas of Australia, and these have put a lot of pressure on natives such as quolls (as well as live stock). It is believed the dogs have run away from farms, but hey, I could be wrong. Perhaps an education program should be set up for the skinny latte drinkers in the city as well as the country??
Thankou Mary, and I agree with you that it will take the whole tool kit to deal with foxes. In Tasmania it is worth pulling out all the stops right now.
My intention in posting the feeding station tactic is to call for others around Australia, with ideas that have worked, to contribute to that tool kit. Especially ideas that are cost effective in both time and money; the two resources that land managers – both farmers and parks staff – are pretty short of.
Helen Mahar
Wild dogs!!! now how long did it take and how much heart ache did it take to convince anyone but particualrly npws that there was a wild dog problem Libby?
Farmers who complained of stock losses to wild dogs were told to their faces that they were liars and only after insurance – even confronted with bodies they would not be believed.
As for coming off farms – more like hippies, retirees and others retiring to hobby farms who refused to tie their dogs up or worse deliberately released them to the wild. I have heard of families from Canberra tired of a puppy grown too big taking it down to the national park to release so that it could lead a more “natural life”.
Then of course you have big hunters who lose their hunting dogs. I don’t think it is just farmers dogs resposnible for the wild dog problem but as usual they cop all of the blame and 100% of the heart ache and cost.
Michael blaming the raped for encouraging their rapists!!!!
Hate fests on farmers and loggers is not going to solve any environmental problem. In fact it only makes things worse because all you do is get is hostility asnd no cooperation at all – with good reason in my opinion.
As for the science – go check out the Victorian studies of fox habits. I doubt there would be much difference in other states but hey I could be wrong. Either way foxes eat a lot of native animals not just lambs it doesn’t matter if it is 25/75 or 50/50 per cent the bottom line is they are very efficient predators with no enemy except humans.
Michael, please have the decency to provide us with detailed and specific evidence of any species extinction caused by forestry. There are none.
And for the record, farmers never went out hunting thylacene. They came to the farms to raid the chook pens because they were an easy meal. The farmers shot them because they were taking food out of the mouths of their own children.
These urban morons have no idea of the circumstances faced by our settlers. There was no dole payments, so social services, no ambulances. Kids were born whether one could afford them or not. Hunger was a regular visitor to many homes and a Thylacene could punch a very big hole in any well planned Larder and do equal damage to the clothing budget.
And those of us who have children of our own can only imagine what it must do for your self esteem having to wait helplessly as hungry kids cry themselves to sleep.
So go through that just once, Michael, and then try and tell us all how you wouldn’t be out with the shot gun the moment you heard the first cackle.
Go on, matey. Show us the barest scrap of evidence that you actually deserve the help of farmers. “Repent our past sins”, indeed, you [….]
I keep been hearing for years that tree clearing is responsible for exitnctions, why are we blaming foxes?
There might need be some deep pockets around – and a fair bit of persistence. New Zealand experience was that it cost about as much to get rid of the last 1% of an established introduced population as it had for the first 99%.
As a keen Tasmanian outdoor person I have yet to see a fox in the Tasmanian bush.
In the past five years not one fox has been captured in Tasmania by shooting or poisoning. No foxes have been photographed by the Fox Free Task Forces remote cameras and not one fox sighting has been substantiated. However three carcasses have turned up on roadsides under mysterious circumstances. Over seven million dollars of tax payers money has been spent on ths fox fiasco,it may be time to find out who is foxing who.
Much information is available on Tasmanian Times web and details of a reward are available also on this site.
It has yet to be established that Tasmania has
breeding fox’s on their island. It’s possible a
fox made the journey in cargo and was the animal found dead on the road.
Could i suggest that a few teams of mainland doggers be employed to verify the exixtence and then a plan for eradication be entered into.?
can you please send us some more information on the tasmanian tigers and why their extinct =D