{"id":928584,"date":"2026-10-11T04:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928584\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T04:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:22:12","slug":"we-cannot-accept-foxes-as-part-of-our-landscape-the-plan-to-save-australias-threatened-wildlife-invasive-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/928584\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We cannot accept foxes as part of our landscape\u2019: the plan to save Australia\u2019s threatened wildlife | Invasive species"},"content":{"rendered":"

They dart across playgrounds on dainty paws, sneak into back yard coops to eat suburban chickens and kill more than a million native animals every day.<\/p>\n

The European red fox \u2013 a wily invasive species \u2013 is \u201cone of the most impactful threats\u201d for native mammals, says Sarah Legge, a professor at Charles Darwin University and author of a new draft plan<\/a> to curb their predation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has the worst record of mammal extinctions of any country in the world \u2013 around 40 species \u2013 and the overwhelming cause for those extinctions has been predation by foxes and cats,\u201d Legge says.<\/p>\n

If the federal environment department moves ahead with the plan, Australia would have its first updated national effort to halt the impact of foxes on native wildlife in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

Legge says there have been dramatic advancements in understanding how to combat foxes since the last plan was released in 2008. Populations are hard to gauge, but estimates put the number about 1.7 million spread across the country<\/a>, from central Queensland down through New South Wales to Victoria and South Australia. Populations are also thriving in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

All those foxes are hungry, with studies estimating foxes kill upwards of 367 million native mammals, 111 million birds, 88 million reptiles and \u201ccountless\u201d invertebrates and frogs each year.<\/p>\n

Fox populations are embedded across the country, from central Queensland down the coast around to South Australia. Photograph: John Cull\/Invasive Species Council<\/p>\n

The draft plan acknowledges that foxes are far too numerous to eradicate but steps can be taken to protect the species most at risk. These include increased funding for safe havens such as fox-free islands and fenced, predator-proof zones<\/a>. The plan also calls for collaboration and \u201clegislative harmony\u201d between states and the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not pretending that we can get rid of foxes from across the continent any time soon,\u201d Legge says. \u201cBut we can definitely stop native wildlife population loss and extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Brewster, the rewilding manager at the Invasive Species Council, says ecologists have spent the past 18 years learning everything they can about foxes and the species they hunt.<\/p>\n

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A dozen key species have been identified as extremely susceptible to fox predation, including the critically endangered Gilbert\u2019s potoroo; the endangered eastern quoll; endangered eastern barred and western barred bandicoots; and species of bettongs, hare-wallabies and the Tasmanian pademelon. Seven species of freshwater turtles are on the list, too.<\/p>\n

Researchers have said for nearly a decade<\/a> that without urgent action, all face the threat of extinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not climate change, it\u2019s not habitat loss, those things are all bad \u2026 but the key driver of these extinctions is foxes and cats,\u201d Brewster says. \u201cAnd unfortunately the trajectory for a lot of our native mammals is still downward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Invasive Species Council is impressed with the long-term plan, which would roll out over the next three decades. But Brewster says it would need to build heavily on what, until this point, has been a scattershot approach more akin to \u201churling baits out of car windows\u201d than a nationally coordinated campaign.<\/p>\n

And that takes money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like the bold, 30-year goal, which is a mission that is aimed at guaranteeing the long-term survival of all native species threatened by foxes,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if there\u2019s no dedicated funding streams \u2026 then this plan will not work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The environment department estimates the total cost, if all actions are fully implemented, will be about $175m over the first five years, or about $35m annually. The spend on fox abatement now is only $5m to $7m.<\/p>\n

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The draft plan is open for public comment, with objectives and actions to achieve over a 30-year period. Photograph: Joshua S Martin\/Invasive Species Council<\/p>\n

But, the plan notes, foxes are thought to cause about $190m in damage to Australian biodiversity every year, meaning the expense will more than pay for itself in environmental benefits.<\/p>\n

The department cites the 30-year nature of the plan as an essential timeline when asked about government support for such funding, saying the threat of invasive species requires \u201csustained action over many years to achieve measurable and lasting improvements in wildlife populations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreat abatement plans play an important role in coordinating research, management and other actions necessary to reverse the decline of native species and prevent further extinctions,\u201d a spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

Bronwyn Hradsky, a senior research fellow and ecologist at the University of Melbourne, agrees tackling invasive species requires comprehensive and lasting support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve started fox control you\u2019re basically committed to continuing it, and you\u2019re looking at really substantial, long-term funding,\u201d she says. \u201cI think in parts of Australia we\u2019ve got some of our amazing native species only because of our fox and cat control to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cA plan like this that pulls it all together, and aims higher and further, is really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding would help share knowledge between localities and invest in efforts to protect at-risk species from extinction. Photograph: Joshua S Martin\/Invasive Species Council<\/p>\n

Matthew Rees, a research scientist at the CSIRO, says it\u2019s not feasible to completely eradicate foxes on the mainland, but it is possible to reduce their negative impact on the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreatened species can persist under fox predation and recent research has made strong progress in uncovering the factors which promote this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFox management has traditionally focused on lethal control usually through poison baiting, which continues to be important. But the draft plan broadens focus by also considering indirect control methods, which can be more feasible and cost-effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewster acknowledges that while foxes may be cute, researchers and the government need to retain the social licence to take the action needed to rein them in, for the benefit of wildlife populations that have been here long before they arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really scary because people are falling in love with the only thing they\u2019re seeing, and they\u2019re forgetting about native wildlife,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t see your native wildlife because it\u2019s all been eaten by foxes, then you\u2019ll probably end up loving what killed them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to save our wildlife, we cannot have people out there who accept foxes as part of our landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They dart across playgrounds on dainty paws, sneak into back yard coops to eat suburban chickens and kill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-928584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}