Yes, the good news is that there are no foxes in Tassie!
However, it is scandalous that $45M has been wasted and I will be very
surprised if that doesn't have repercussions for the funding of other
conservation projects.
What puzzles me is who would benefit from the fraud or hoax?
Cheers
David
On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 11:12 PM, Kim Sterelny <>
wrote:
>
> Dear All
>
> False alarms of this kind are likely to damage the credibility of the
> environmental movement; there are plenty of well funded and highly
> motivated individuals out there looking for ways of discrediting it; just
> recall some of the very way climate change scientists have had their e-mail
> accounts hacked into and quoted out of context to suggest malpractice.So
> real malpractice, or even sloppy or alarmist practice, will be remembered,
> exaggerated, and recycled. I think there has been some tendencies in the
> past to use pretty doubtful "splitting" taxonomies to turn isolated
> populations into supposed species, which were then more or less
> automatically critically endangered. Given the kind of unfriendly vigilance
> to which conservation movements are subjected, I think its wise to be
> cautious, to not over-call dangers, and so on.
>
> That said: surely its great news if there are no foxes in Tasmania! The
> place is full of small marsupials that would be at great risk, and so I am
> delighted to know that they are safe from one major peril, at least
>
> Km
>
> Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social
> Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia
> or
>
> 61-(0)2-6125-2886
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of Ian
> May <>
> Sent: Thursday, 10 December 2015 9:46 PM
> To: Birding-aus
> Cc: Hunt, Greg (MP); Ivan Dean
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Tasmanian Fox Hoax or Fraud
>
> <>A recent review into the Tasmanian Fox eradication program has found
> no evidence of foxes in Tasmania. There are calls for a thorough
> Police investigation into this whole sorry saga.
>
> See
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-02/no-evidence-of-foxes-in-tasmania2c-report-slams-taskforce/5425266
>
> See also
>
> http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/researchers-suspect-fox-evidence-fabrication-tasma/
>
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-25/push-for-police-probe-into-claims-of-fake-fox-evidence-in-tas/6973554
>
> This disgraceful episode has irreparably damaged the credibility of the
> environmental movement in Tasmania. There are many questions that need
> answers before this one is put to bed. We should all feel cheated that
> more than 45 million dollars has been wasted, probably at the expense of
> genuine needs such as conservation and protection of Orange-bellied
> Parrot etc.
>
> It is interesting to note that birding-aus probably got the first scoop
> on this back in October 2002. At that time, it was interesting to
> observe that Mr. Camby, the author of the report
>
> http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2002-10/msg00398.html
> was howled down by some birding aus subscribers for suggesting that
> there could be fraud at the heart of the Tasmanian Fox eradication program.
>
> This saga places a cloud of shame over the entire Tasmanian
> environmental movement. It is very sad to see.
>
> Ian May
> St Helens, Tasmania
>
>
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