Historical Introduction

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Australians formed what was known as acclimatisation societies" to “enhance their barren forests” and released red and fallow deer from Europe and sambar and hog deer from Asia, as well as rabbits, hares, and foxes from various locales.

Meanwhile, pigs, camels, horses, donkeys, Asian buffalo, and banteng brought to Australia by farmers and others escaped and reproduced without large predators to control them.