FROM THE ARCHIVES
This article was first published in The Current community newspaper in 2003.
This article was first published in The Current community newspaper in 2003.
Alan Cleeland: “I’ve been hunting foxes for 55 years and I still don’t know what makes them tick.”
By Catherine Watson
MENTION Alan Cleeland’s name on Phillip Island and the old-timers nod their heads. “The fox man,” they say.
For almost five decades Alan and his team of foxhounds have been a familiar sight.
These days, forced by illness to stay closer to home, he lends his dogs and knowledge to others who continue his mission of ridding the island of foxes, the scourge of fairy penguins and other native wildlife.
He’s killed about 750 himself since he began hunting in his teens. Impressive enough – but to put it into real perspective, consider each of the vixens giving birth to four or five cubs a year, and so on through the years.
MENTION Alan Cleeland’s name on Phillip Island and the old-timers nod their heads. “The fox man,” they say.
For almost five decades Alan and his team of foxhounds have been a familiar sight.
These days, forced by illness to stay closer to home, he lends his dogs and knowledge to others who continue his mission of ridding the island of foxes, the scourge of fairy penguins and other native wildlife.
He’s killed about 750 himself since he began hunting in his teens. Impressive enough – but to put it into real perspective, consider each of the vixens giving birth to four or five cubs a year, and so on through the years.
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Alan says what really put “the fire in his belly” was the sight of 50 dead penguins, the result of one night’s sport by a marauding fox at the Nobbies.
“If they killed a bird for food, it would be different,” he says. “But they kill for fun.” For the same reason, he has little patience with the animal welfare lobbyists who object to fox traps. The traps might be cruel, he says, but nothing is as cruel as a fox out for a night of carnage. |
Mission accomplished After around 25 years of dedicated effort, Phillip Island was declared fox-free in 2017. There have been two recent "incursions", in 2022 and 2025. Both foxes were caught after a major trapping exercise. Ongoing measures to reduce the threat of reinvasion include a fox control buffer zone on the mainland, fox detection dogs on the island and the Foxcam on the Phillip Island bridge. |
One fox in particular sticks in his mind. Alan chased it for a month. “He killed 17 one night and 19 another night. He was killing them at Manderville Road and I tracked him to Salt Creek. He turned around and did a zig-zag. He was travelling five or six miles a night to kill those birds, then turn around and go back!”
A fourth-generation islander – his great-grandfather came here in 1865 – he worked as a shearer and ranger/handyman at the Koala Reserve before joining the state-backed assault on the island’s foxes when it began in 1988.
When the campaign began, the foxes were killing up to 500 penguins a year. At least, that’s the number of bird remains that were found. These days the number is down to around 100.
Alan’s personal estimate is that there are probably no more than 25 foxes left on the island, although he says the battle is far from over. “I think at the moment we’re on top of it, but we can’t let up now.”
For as long as he can, he’ll be giving the benefit of his expertise to finish off the job.
Just don’t call him a fox expert: he says there’s no such thing.
“I’ve been hunting foxes for 55 years and I still don’t know what makes them tick.”
A fourth-generation islander – his great-grandfather came here in 1865 – he worked as a shearer and ranger/handyman at the Koala Reserve before joining the state-backed assault on the island’s foxes when it began in 1988.
When the campaign began, the foxes were killing up to 500 penguins a year. At least, that’s the number of bird remains that were found. These days the number is down to around 100.
Alan’s personal estimate is that there are probably no more than 25 foxes left on the island, although he says the battle is far from over. “I think at the moment we’re on top of it, but we can’t let up now.”
For as long as he can, he’ll be giving the benefit of his expertise to finish off the job.
Just don’t call him a fox expert: he says there’s no such thing.
“I’ve been hunting foxes for 55 years and I still don’t know what makes them tick.”