Red Fox Vulpes vulpes - The Coorong, SA
I came across this beautiful – even in death – example of a Red Fox in my recent travels in the Coorong in the south-east of South Australia.
The Red Fox was introduced to Australia in the mid-1850s by the gloriously named Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, which was the principal body responsible for the introduction of a number of nominally useful, but now well-established pest or nuisance species to Australia.
The Red Fox is now found across mainland Australia apart from the tropical north and some offshore islands. In recent years it appears that Tasmania, which had been considered fox-free until about 2001, now has a resident population – most likely introduced by some modern-day acclimatisationalist.
Foxes are notoriously cunning and capable hunters and have played a significant role in the decline of many ground-nesting and foraging birds, a number of our small to medium sized mammals including the greater Bilby, and has been a significant predator of vulnerable reptiles such as the green turtle.
The Fox is also believed to be a major contributor to the significant declines in populations of many other threatened species, including the Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby and the enigmatic Night Parrot. Foxes have also been blamed for significant stock losses to farmers by preying on newborn lambs, goats and poultry and could also be a vector of rabies, in the event that
disease be introduced into Australia.
The Introduced Plants and Animals of Victoria website says that the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria consisted of an:
“…august group of men, all Europeans, reasoned that life in the new colony would be improved by the addition of true game species such as deer. Their first preference was for Red Deer (Cervus elephas), a native to England and Europe, which was considered to be the noblest of animals for gentlemen to hunt.
The Acclimatisation Society of Victoria replaced the Zoological Society of Victoria in the early 1860s and was responsible for managing the Melbourne Zoological Gardens. In 1872 the Society’s name was changed to recognise its broader interests, then being renamed the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria.
Acclimatisation societies were found throughout the British colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US – being particularly influential in Australia and New Zealand in the latter half of the nineteenth century. They represented a desire to introduce animals and birds that could be hunted or that familiarised the foreign lands of those colonies and to remind the settlers of their distant “home”.
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