The move has been welcomed by experts including the Invasive Species Council Of Australia, which says it’s long-overdue opportunity to strengthen Australia’s response to one of its most destructive introduced predators.
The draft Threat Abatement Plan for predation by European red foxes has been released for public consultation, which would replace the existing plan dating back to 2008.
Invasive Species Council rewilding manager Rob Brewster said the draft strategy was an important opportunity to ensure Australia’s approach to fox control reflected nearly two decades of advances in conservation science and invasive species management.
“Australia’s current national fox strategy was written 18 years ago,” Mr Brewster said.
“Since then, our understanding of the devastating impact foxes are having on Australian wildlife has grown enormously.
“Foxes have helped drive native animals to extinction and continue to prey on threatened mammals, birds and reptiles across huge areas of the country.
“For animals like bandicoots, bettongs and many ground-dwelling birds, controlling foxes can be the difference between populations recovering or disappearing altogether.
Mr Brewster welcomed the new national strategy, but called on governments to invest in coordinated, sustained fox control across the landscapes where our most vulnerable native animals still survive.
“Australia has some of the best knowledge and tools in the world for controlling introduced predators,” he said.
“We need to use them at the scale required to protect wildlife and restore native animals to places where foxes have pushed them out.”
He said conservation programs had shown when foxes and other introduced predators were removed or effectively controlled, threatened native animals could recover.
The draft Threat Abatement Plan for predation by European red foxes is currently open for public consultation.
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