I am a field-zoologist and wildlife management consultant based in Melbourne. I am an active member of a Victorian country-based Fox-drive group i.e. expert Fox shooters with trained Fox hunting dogs.
The trained dogs are BEAGLES: excellent sniffing and scent-trailing barking dogs; JACK-RUSSEL TERRIERS: excellent small hunting dogs, which are fighting and chasing Foxes out of their dens or burrows; WHIPPETS and STAG-HOUNDS: running dogs, which run after- and kill the Foxes that managed to escape the shooters.
We therefore have a 100% success rate in flushing out Foxes from any known Fox habitat or “patch”, and a 98%-100% Fox kill rate at each drive.
The group and I have sent letters to the Premier of Tasmania with CC to the Fox Eradication Task Force (then) in offering our expertise including all costing (quotation) to:
a. Independently and professionally study and investigate Each Fresh Sighting (e.g. recent family Stuart Spencer sighting as reported in The Examiner, Family claims fox sighted on highway).
b.Where deemed necessary, to conduct a full scale joint Fox Drive with Victorian Fox hunting dogs around the “sighting” area, which shall have a similar 99%-100% Fox flush (chase) success rate as on the mainland. A joint Tasmanian and (professional) Victorian Fox shooter team shall be able to shoot any Fox (Vulpes vulpes) that may be flushed-out of any farm- or bushland, creek, habitat or “patch”.
c. To attract any Tasmanian predator to a special baiting area that is monitored by electronic and Infra-Red- IR surveillance equipment. A fox for example is easily identified or shot.
After sometime, I have received a reply from a member of the FEP basically indicating that there are strict regulation and quarantine requirements for bringing the dogs to Tasmania, and that they already have trained (Fox scat sniffing) dogs (which are/were sourced (?) and trained in Victoria! – JW).
I have come to a conclusion that the Tasmanian FEP Task Force (then) is not interested to have any “independent or outsider” professional Red Fox expert(s) to prove that there is/are – or that there are NO fox(es) in the area of the “sighting” – or indeed in Tasmania.
With my due respect to Mr Stuart Spencer and family (R. Bolger in The Examiner,29.01.2013) and all other Tasmanian people who believe to have/had seen a fox, it is of great, critical Tasmanian and indeed Australian national interest that any new, fresh sighting is independently verified: for expert and professional investigation, which ultimately can result in a true and tangible revelation: one way or the other. This includes the finding of a possible new, fresh Fox scat. I, we, can independently test the scat: both for its origin and DNA.
If the Tasmanian Government i.e. the FEP Task Force still would not accept our written offer for the above a.b.c. points, I, we, are prepared to invest our time and funds to contribute: to once and for all solve the occurrence or no-existence of Foxes in Tasmania. Please write to [email protected] so an email can be forwarded (or Jack West: on 0414 530 607).
My Conclusion:
Anybody who has studied or followed the “Tasmanian Fox Saga” e.g. through The Fox-free Tasmania Newsletters, Tasmanian Times, The Mercury, The Examiner, Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre – IACRC, scientific papers and literature about the“Tasmanian Fox(es)” should be aware that it, the saga, has gone too far!
The Tasmanian people but more so the Australian scientific community has been put into an embarrassing situation when reading:
“Foxes are now widespread in Tasmania: DNA detection defines the distribution of this rare but invasive carnivore.Using DNA detection techniques developed at the University, the team mapped the presence of foxes in Tasmania, predicted their spread and developed a model of their likely distribution as a blueprint for fox eradication, but swift and decisive action is needed. University of Canberra professor in wildlife genetics and leader of the team, Stephen Sarre, found foxes are widespread in northern and eastern Tasmania and the model developed by his team forecasts they will spread even further with likely devastating consequences for the island’s wildlife.” (S. Sarre et al., Fox Invasion Threatens Wave of Extinction in Tasmania, Journal of Applied Ecology, London, Dec 04, 2012).
Apparently, the “Tasmanian fox scats” found in different areas through the years have been sent among others to the mainland for DNA analysis and testiing.
Their detective work, in partnership with Tasmania’s Fox Eradication Program, represents one of the largest surveys of its kind worldwide and provides the first systematic examination of the distribution of foxes in the island, following evidence and allegations that indicate a long history of isolated introductions”. Based on the location(s) and positive Fox DNA, the University of Canberra team “has modelled and mapped the presence of Foxes in Tasmania”!
But what if the Fox scats, as some critics fervently believe, are willfully planted there? To solve the long standing saga i.e. insults and perceptions, from now on, we are able to independently test and analyze future Fox scats found any where in Tasmania for its origin. Until such time, without even one genuine, dead or alive, recent Tasmanian Fox (ever) found proven, Fox poison baiting (and model mapping) in any form must be stopped immediately.
From afar I observe … there is a real and present environmental terrorism threat: that a Fox or worse still, live Foxes could be willfully re-introduced to Tasmania inside a ship. God forbids!
Jack West
Engineering and Wildlife Management Consultant
“Panthera tigris”
Narre Warren VIC 3805
Australia
