The European Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) was originally released near Melbourne, Victoria, in 1845. The fox started preying on native Australian animals at this time. The reason that this environmental disaster was introduced was for recreational hunting. It was then, itself, hunted, by humans, from 1865.
Before this, recreational hunting started in 1839, near Melbourne, Victoria. The hunters sought after other animals, such as kangaroos and dingoes.
Quickly with the assistance of the abundance of rabbits as a food source, the Fox had crossed the Nullarbor Plain (south-western South Australia) into the state of Western Australia.
By 1893, some shires in the state of Victoria had already indicated that the fox was a pest and applied bounties for each fox that was killed. New South Wales quickly followed Victoria’s example. All most every town had a fox weigh-in.
The European Fox reached Queensland approximately 1910 and since then has had a massive effect on all the different ecosystems of the state of Queensland.
The hunting of foxes in
the 20th and 21st centuries have subsided
massively, due to the unstable prices of fox pelts. Animal
liberationists have protested against the hunting of foxes, and
other feral animals such as rabbits, feral cats, goats, pigs,
camels etc., but these animals are feral and are killing
machines which are destroying the native fauna in Australia. If
these animals are allowed to continue to breed and remain in the
wild for much longer, then the fragile environment in this
country will be destroyed we will never be able to retrieve this
unique environment.
