Foxes

[ellz]

But I swear that Mr Ellz and I have literally just seen one!!!

I've phoned the Fox Eradication Taskforce and told them what I saw. And between starting to write this post and now, the tracker has rung me for details of our location and will be coming out here tonight to do some calling.

[persephone]

Hopefully they get it/them!

Much & all as I love the look of foxes .. they do not belong here

[indigirl]

Maybe some foxes have learned to be long-distance swimmers. Cant imagine how one would get over from the mainland otherwise. Cant see anyone willingly bringing one!

[poodlefan]

Maybe some foxes have learned to be long-distance swimmers. Cant imagine how one would get over from the mainland otherwise. Cant see anyone willingly bringing one!

That's how they got here in the first place. Never say never.

[ellz]

Maybe some foxes have learned to be long-distance swimmers. Cant imagine how one would get over from the mainland otherwise. Cant see anyone willingly bringing one!

They do believe they were introduced illegally and there is also evidence of them stowing away on boats coming into Tasmania. There is definite evidence that they are here (scats, carcasses and sightings) but the whole point of the taskforce is to identify, find and eradicate them before they can develop a large breeding program and have an adverse affect on our own unique wildlife.

[Kirislin]

Maybe some foxes have learned to be long-distance swimmers. Cant imagine how one would get over from the mainland otherwise. Cant see anyone willingly bringing one!

yep, as crazy and idiotic as this is, that's what is believed to have happened.

I feel the same as Persephone, I love foxes but they dont belong here, and I wasn't feeling too kindly towards the one/s that killed my beautiful chookies.

Edited July 14, 2010 by Kirislin

[corvus]

A pro-hunting group released 6 foxes in Tasmania back in 2000 as an act of environmental vandalism in response to changed hunting laws. They caught 3 or 4, I think, in that first year, but never got the last ones. No one has seen one since, but there has been fox scats analysed and positively IDed. And Steve Austen has been training dogs to signal on fox scat for work down there.

[ellz]

There have been scats identified within a matter of 20km from here according to the guy from the taskforce that I spoke to this afternoon.

He asked me to describe what I saw, he kind of deliberately wasn't saying much but when I gave him the description of the colour, shape and movement and particularly the markings I saw on the back of the ears, he got rather animated.

Mr Ellz says he is feeling a bit like he has seen a UFO!

[ellz]

Oh and FWIW, we didn't know about the Bruny Island sighting until not long ago....Mr Ellz is literally just reading the newspaper now.

[MalteseLuna]

A pro-hunting group released 6 foxes in Tasmania back in 2000 as an act of environmental vandalism in response to changed hunting laws. They caught 3 or 4, I think, in that first year, but never got the last ones. No one has seen one since, but there has been fox scats analysed and positively IDed. And Steve Austen has been training dogs to signal on fox scat for work down there.

That's just appalling that people would do that.

Really ticks me off when people deliberately introduce non-native animals to a habitat, wreaks havoc on the native ecosystems.

We should know enough by now to know that's it not a good idea - there are enough examples of 'invasive introduced species' now ... cane toad anyone?

[-Pokey-]

A pro-hunting group released 6 foxes in Tasmania back in 2000 as an act of environmental vandalism in response to changed hunting laws. They caught 3 or 4, I think, in that first year, but never got the last ones. No one has seen one since, but there has been fox scats analysed and positively IDed. And Steve Austen has been training dogs to signal on fox scat for work down there.

Just out of curiosity.. do you have a source for this? I'm not suggesting it's untrue, I just can't understand the reasoning behind releasing foxes as "environmental vandalism" when they then made efforts to recover what they'd released*.

And that point aside, not only could Google not provide a single article to support the above, I've lived in Tasmania for 25 years and never heard any rumours to this effect.

Edit-

* This is akin to spray painting graffiti all over a wall and then washing it off again; just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Edited July 14, 2010 by -Pokey-

[tez]

I was in Tassie last Christmas and saw a dead fox on the side of the road near ?Mole Creek. I wasn't too fussed as I had no idea Tassie didn't have them. And it was definitely a fox. We see heaps here, both dead and alive, in South West Vic.

[Diva]

I've heard that same deliberate release story.

[-Pokey-]

I've heard that same deliberate release story.

Can you provide a source though? If not, it's best to be clear upfront that what you're repeating is hearsay only and not fact- that's what I'm getting at.

Either way, it's clearly a terrible thing but spreading misinformation (as this can only be considered, given no sources are apparently available) as fact really isn't productive.

Edited July 14, 2010 by -Pokey-

[D & D]

A pro-hunting group released 6 foxes in Tasmania back in 2000 as an act of environmental vandalism in response to changed hunting laws. They caught 3 or 4, I think, in that first year, but never got the last ones. No one has seen one since, but there has been fox scats analysed and positively IDed. And Steve Austen has been training dogs to signal on fox scat for work down there.

Just out of curiosity.. do you have a source for this? I'm not suggesting it's untrue, I just can't understand the reasoning behind releasing foxes as "environmental vandalism" when they then made efforts to recover what they'd released*.

And that point aside, not only could Google not provide a single article to support the above, I've lived in Tasmania for 25 years and never heard any rumours to this effect.

Edit-

* This is akin to spray painting graffiti all over a wall and then washing it off again; just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I just did a quick google search and came up with this

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...030123_fox.html

Haven't read it all.

[Diva]

I've heard that same deliberate release story.

Can you provide a source though? If not, it's best to be clear upfront that what you're repeating is hearsay only and not fact- that's what I'm getting at.

I thought by referring to it as hearing a story I was being clear it was hearsay. I have heard it from more than one source, and in both Tasmania and Canberra, but that doesn't make it any more than hearsay. Of course, not everything that happens makes Google either.

[-Pokey-]

A pro-hunting group released 6 foxes in Tasmania back in 2000 as an act of environmental vandalism in response to changed hunting laws. They caught 3 or 4, I think, in that first year, but never got the last ones. No one has seen one since, but there has been fox scats analysed and positively IDed. And Steve Austen has been training dogs to signal on fox scat for work down there.

Just out of curiosity.. do you have a source for this? I'm not suggesting it's untrue, I just can't understand the reasoning behind releasing foxes as "environmental vandalism" when they then made efforts to recover what they'd released*.

And that point aside, not only could Google not provide a single article to support the above, I've lived in Tasmania for 25 years and never heard any rumours to this effect.

Edit-

* This is akin to spray painting graffiti all over a wall and then washing it off again; just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I just did a quick google search and came up with this

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...030123_fox.html

Haven't read it all.

Although that article mentions deliberate release (although without conclusive evidence), it's not mentioned anywhere that this alleged release was conducted by pro-hunting groups or as an act of environmental vandalism.

I'm loath to make assumptions but it sounds suspiciously like agenda-driven rumour (*cough* AACT *cough*) to me.

[corvus]

Just out of curiosity.. do you have a source for this? I'm not suggesting it's untrue, I just can't understand the reasoning behind releasing foxes as "environmental vandalism" when they then made efforts to recover what they'd released*.

And that point aside, not only could Google not provide a single article to support the above, I've lived in Tasmania for 25 years and never heard any rumours to this effect.

Sorry, I didn't make that very clear. It wasn't the folks that released the foxes that hunted them afterwards, but the wildlife protection folks. Not sure of who exactly, which is why I said "they". Unhelpfully.

I heard this story back in my early university days from a guest lecturer... I am wracking my brain trying to remember who it was, but I can't remember. It was the year after the foxes were released that I attended that lecture. I think it was in my Australian Wildlife course, which would have been.... in 2002, so that sounds about right. I'm not sure what the legislation was that upset the pro-hunting people. The guest lecturer didn't say. I got the sense it was an "up yours" gesture. They did it because they were trying to hit the greenies where it hurt. It was not an act of ignorance at all, but was painted as a calculated, malicious act. Don't know about the "hundreds of sightings" in the article, but they might have. I was out of the loop after 2002, so didn't hear anything further on it. I don't think you'd find any conclusive evidence to back that story up. I mean, if they knew who did it they would have been able to prosecute them.

[Diva]

I mean, if they knew who did it they would have been able to prosecute them.

Not necessarily. They might know without having enough evidence to stand up in a prosecution.

Pokey, the people I heard the story from weren't focussed on the motivation for the release nor trying to give it an anti-hunter spin, their interest was in the eradication effort.

Edited July 14, 2010 by Diva

[-Pokey-]

I mean, if they knew who did it they would have been able to prosecute them.

Not necessarily. They might know without having enough evidence to stand up in a prosecution.

Pokey, the people I heard the story from weren't focussed on the motivation for the release nor trying to give it an anti-hunter spin, their interest was in the eradication effort.

Given how efficiently rumours spread down here, I think it's highly unlikely that any individual or group suspected of deliberately introducing a breeding population of foxes into Tasmania would remain an anonymous "they" for very long, even if the authorities, themselves, lacked the evidence to actually prosecute.