Why were foxes introduced into Australia?
Foxes were introduced into Australia purely 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 near Melbourne in 1845. 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.
