SOME biologists are convinced that foxes have established in Tasmania.

In 1998 a fox travelled on a freight ferry across Bass Strait from Melbourne to Burnie. It successfully disembarked at the port and then escaped into the city environs. It was never captured despite I am told over a $100,000 of expenditure on this one fox.

The Fox Free Taskforce — a group set up by the State government — tells us there have been over 1000 high quality fox sightings from locations across the State, yet not one confirmed sighting by a fox being photographed or fox captured or a poisoned fox carcass recovered. Something is dreadfully wrong here.

Feral cats threaten more bird and mammal species than foxes according to AusStats invasive species, yet nothing like millions of dollars spent on the politically sensitive cat issue, not a dollar.

Over the last 4 years the FFTF has put out over 60,000 1080 meat baits aimed to target foxes. The “protectors” of our wildlife say this is acceptable and collateral damage to other wildlife is better than the risk of foxes. Maybe some cognitive therapy has been applied here?

There have now been a number of fox incidents spanning several years; these involve foxes allegedly shot in Tasmania or the recovery of fox material (skins, footprints and scats).

The principle claim that foxes are here, we are told, comes from a covert and intentional campaign to smuggle in, rear and release up to 19 foxes over several years. This claim was not substantiated by a specially convened Tasmania Police taskforce.

Burnie road kill incident

Two fox incidents in the northern Midlands in 2001 — both relied upon by the authorities as evidence of fox establishment — have been shown to be a hoax and the second one highly dubious. The reliability of the claims made, the handling of the forensic material and the conclusions drawn have all been questioned.

The Burnie road kill incident in 2003 is unsupported by any identifiable witnesses and the FFTF has not released critical DNA evidence on this fox. The reason for this delay is not known. I suspect it would reveal the origin of this fox was Port Melbourne.

Despite a public reward of $50,000 posted by the Tasmanian Government for information leading to the successful conviction of a person or persons involved in the alleged smuggling of foxes into Tasmania, this reward remains unclaimed.

The latest incident, sensationally brought to the attention of media in the second week of the state election campaign, involves the recovery of roadkill material from the bitumen of a highway west of Tasmania’s third largest city, Devonport. DNA evidence confirms that the material recovered is from a European red fox, Vulpes vulpes.

It is reported that this squashed material was thought to be from a juvenile fox, perhaps as young as 2-month old. The conclusion being drawn is that this animal may have been born in Tasmania during the spring of 2005.

Was it born here or did it come in a plastic bag?

In the last few weeks, efforts have been directed at recovering further important pieces of evidence from around the Lillico site and to perhaps find the location of the den in which this fox was born and reared by its parents.

Smuggled foxes into the state

The state election is now over and there have been no further information updates on developments at Lillico as no siblings or parents or mandatory dens have been found.

The fox establishment scenario held by the state authorities has gone like this. Some one (perhaps several people) successfully smuggled foxes into the state on more than one occasion over several years and released them in at least three different areas of Tasmania. The authorities apparently were provided with allegations of the presence of foxes in the late 1990s but were only alerted to this smuggling scenario in early 2001.

So the authorities have told us and apparently they then received further information to this effect in 2002 as well. [This additional information is the subject if another Freedom of Information request to Tasmania Police.]

Hoaxes involving fox carcasses and elaborate tales have been a hallmark of this program from its outset.

Have authorities asked themselves why there have been so many bogus claims, tall stories and fabricated evidence? Why would individuals go to the effort of playing so many elaborate tricks? What would be their motivation? Who stands to gain by indulging in such deceitful actions?

If any of these incidents alleging foxes had been shot in Tasmania were genuinely authentic, why have those individuals directly involved either remained anonymous or subsequently been uncooperative? It does not add up.

The official police investigation into these fox import allegations was based on a detailed briefing from DPIWE biologists. It concluded in July 2001, not recovering any corroborative evidence to support the hearsay.

Within days of the closure of the police inquiry, Tasmanians read in their newspapers about the first of many sensational incidents alleging a fox had been shot in Tasmania.

Border quarantine

Is this fox establishment argument a case of a psychogenic phenomenon somewhat akin to the case that thylacines still exist? In the case of thylacines, alleged sightings are still made, however, it is rather impossible to fabricate or construct plausible physical evidence because the animal is believed to be extinct, i.e. there are no living thylacines. Even when the national Bulletin magazine recently offered a reward of $1,250,000 for verifiable evidence of the continued existence of thylacines, there were no payouts. In the case of foxes in Tasmania, however, physical evidence in the form of a body, a skin, a scat, or a photograph can be offered — fox material is readily available in southern Australia and Tasmania’s border quarantine is not capable of preventing these types of imports.

In other words, there was no need for live foxes to actually be in Tasmania, to create the current evidence trail.

The most troubling aspect of this saga alleging foxes have established in Tasmania has been to follow the actions, reactions and attitude of the public officials involved in this program. When faced with criticisms or scepticism, their reaction has been to caution and intimidate cynics; warn them of the damaging consequences of raising their doubt so publicly. When asked logical questions, there is no response from the authorities. When asked to provide the results of critical tests or the opportunity to review vital forensic material, there is no response. When requested to discuss important matters face to face, there is non committal.

Little wonder that public confidence and co-operation in the program is so low.

No-one knows what to believe

If there were the strongest grounds to believe that such a serious ecological introduction had indeed taken place, it would seem only sensible that the State authorities would mount a whole of government response. This is the accepted contingency planning in place in the event of a serious outbreak of an exotic disease like Foot & Mouth Disease or Bird Flu (H5N1). Why would the authorities leave the planning, preparedness and response for the likely introduction of foxes to just a small group of DPIWE staff independent of its overarching state biosecurity program?

This activity has stalled because no-one knows who or what to believe any more? If their critical pieces of ‘hard physical’ evidence are dubious then we are left with a significant credibility gap. If the government officials still feel there is a strong likelihood that foxes may still be in Tasmania, the overriding task is to ensure that whatever evidence is collected methodically, assessed scrupulously and then acted on appropriately.

These published fox incidents should never be linked to funding. If the problem is authentic and verifiable then a whole-of-government and a whole-of-community approach would be triggered immediately. The fact we have not seen anything like that suggests to me that the FFTF has to convince the Premier of Tasmania and relevant ministers that Tasmania definitely has evidence that foxes have established and as a consequence Tasmania definitely faces an ecological disaster when combined with the massive feral cat population in Tasmania.