Why are foxes an introduced species of Australia?
The fox is not native to Australia, but was introduced almost
200 years ago. Foxes were introduced into Australia initially for
the purpose of recreational fox-hunting. Australia's roots were
British, a country where fox-hunting had been carried out for
hundreds of years, but the only "sport" that hunters had was
dingoes and kangaroos. Bringing foxes to the new country enabled
them to still indulge their sport of fox-hunting. The European red
fox was first released in the Geelong area near Melbourne in 1845.
More were introduced after 1845 as a method for controlling the
introduced hare problem. It was given time to breed, which it did
prolifically with no natural predators on the continent, and
fox-hunting started within a couple of decades.