Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018C00161:reg:1:p2
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018C00161
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 1 (pt 2/4)
Character Range: 6969–9833

first brought to Australia by English settlers in the 19th century (Rolls 1984), and by the 1870s fox populations had become established in the wild. Today, foxes are widely distributed across the Australian mainland and are confirmed to be present in Tasmania (Saunders et al. 2006). However, the fox has not yet colonised the tropical far north and is not established on Kangaroo Island or on many other offshore islands. Factors driving abundance and distribution of foxes are not clear; for example, it is not known whether they have reached their northern limit (Saunders et al. 1995).

The fox is a serious vertebrate pest and is in the World Conservation Union's list of the 100 worst invasive species (Lowe et al. 2000). Predation by the European red fox is listed as a key threatening process under the EPBC Act. Foxes are a confirmed or perceived threat to a large number of threatened species (see Appendix A), although impacts from fox predation are not restricted to these species.

This TAP has been put into place as a feasible, effective and efficient way to abate the threat of predation by foxes.

1.2.2  The impacts

Foxes have a wide dietary range, and are threatened by few natural enemies or few serious diseases in Australia. They also have high reproductive rates and high rates of cub survival, which allows them to rapidly colonise areas although they only breed once a year over a short period. These attributes are important in making the fox a significant threat to biodiversity.

Foxes have direct impacts on a range of native animal species. They prey particularly on small to medium-sized, ground-dwelling and semi-arboreal mammals, ground-nesting birds and chelid tortoises.

1.2.3  Managing the threat

As foxes are so widely established in Australia, the focus of management is on abating impacts by established populations, except for offshore islands that are currently fox free and Tasmania where eradication is being attempted. Control of foxes is difficult; control methods include baiting, shooting, trapping, den fumigation or destruction, and exclusion fencing. However, apart from broadscale baiting, the methods are expensive, labour intensive, long term and of limited effectiveness (Saunders and McLeod 2007).

Interactions between pest species mean that control of other pest animals can have effects on foxes. For example, a study in inland Australia found that fox numbers fell after a major reduction in rabbit numbers through rabbit haemorrhagic disease (Bowen and Read 1998). An understanding of these interactions is important when designing and recommending pest animal control programs. In many situations, concurrent multi-species programs will be required. Integrating control techniques will maximise the success of control programs.

Continental eradication may be the ideal goal of a fox TAP, but is not