Tracing the rapid spread of the fox across Australia

Red foxes colonised Australia in just 60 years, according to new research lead by Curtin University and the University of Adelaide, which provides vital insights into preventing future extinctions of native animals.

Reconstructing the invasion patters using computational models and historical sighting records sourced from archives and newspaper articles, data has revealed how foxes spread across Australia, helping to explain their role in the decline of native fauna.  

Lead author Dr Sean Tomlinson, from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, shared that they drew on hundreds of sighting records and advanced model simulations to piece together the story of the species’ arrival and spread.

Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were first introduced in Victoria in the 1870s for fox hunting, released in areas such as Werribee, Corio, and Ballarat. Over time, they have been responsible for the death of an estimated 300 million native animals each year. Among them are threatened species such as the Fitzroy River turtle, great desert skink, little penguin, and almost half of Australia’s endangered land mammals. These invasive predators remain a major driver of both past and current extinctions explains Dr Tomlinson. 

Today, Australia’s fox population is estimated at around 1.7 million, and 16 mammals have become extinct or partly because of them. They thrive in human modified landscapes, preying predominately on small to medium sized mammals.

The study found that foxes rapidly expanded from south-eastern Australia between 1870 and 1895, spreading north and west, with their distribution largely complete by 1940.

Environment Institute Deputy Director and senior author Associate Professor Damien Fordham said the study helps explain historical biodiversity losses, providing critical data to guide conservation strategies and mitigate future extinctions of Australia’s unique fauna.

“Our high-resolution reconstructions of fox invasion of Australia pinpoint areas that could have provided native wildlife with sanctuaries from foxes due to later invasions or lower predator densities,” Associate Professor Fordham said.

These findings offer a framework for mapping the spread of other invasive species, such as cats, to help reduce the ongoing decline of native wildlife.

This work was carried out in partnership with researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Copenhagen’s GLOBE Institute, under an Australian Research Council Discovery Project.

Read the full study, published in Diversity and Distributions.  Find Dr Tomlinson and Associate Professor Fordham's article for The Conversation here.

Media Mentions: 
The Conversation, The Guardian,