To a newly-arrived red fox, the abundant rolling grasslands and swamps of Wadawurrung Country, around what is now called Port Phillip Bay, must have seemed like a predator’s paradise.

This landscape was filled with small native marsupials and birds, and free of European wolves or bears that usually kept fox numbers in check.

The first red foxes, (Vulpes vulpes), to arrive in Australia were deliberately released by European colonialists in 1870 in three Victorian locations – Werribee, Corio (near Geelong) and Ballarat. They were introduced for the “noble” sport of fox hunting.

Small native animals became easy prey for foxes because they did not evolve with these predators and did not know to avoid them.

Red fox numbers ballooned and they spread rapidly. How fast? Our new research shows it took just 60 years for one of Australia’s most devastating invasive predators to colonise the continent. These days, foxes can be found everywhere except the tropical north and Tasmania.

Their rapid spread offers clues to how we might prevent future extinctions of native animals from foxes, and map the infiltration of........

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