THE Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery fears it may have been misled about the legitimacy of its fox evidence collection.

In a statement, the museum said all of its fox material - collected by the controversial Fox Taskforce - had been shifted to a laboratory at Inveresk after allegations were raised that it may have been fabricated.

The items were once held at Royal Park with the rest of the institute's Tasmanian vertebrate collection.

The museum said the collection would remain locked in the laboratory until someone could prove undoubtedly that the material originated in Tasmania.

Donated to the museum by the former Labor government, the collection contains fox carcasses, body parts, scats and other material found across Tasmania between 2001 and 2011.

Until now, those items were considered by QVMAG to be proof of a fox population in Tasmania.

QVMAG's statement comes as police weigh up whether to begin an investigation into allegations of criminality in the Fox Taskforce.

"The material was donated to the QVMAG as physical evidence of the fox in Tasmania. Now that is being questioned," the museum said.

"These specimens have previously been formally registered into the QVMAG database with the information provided.

"However, concerns by external parties about this materials' provenance has caused us to reconsider what this collection represents."

The museum said it made the decision to move carcasses from the vertebrate store at Royal Park to a laboratory at Inveresk with the rest of the collection "for ease of access".

"The decision was made to minimise disruption to core business," the museum said.

"Concerns have been raised in the scientific literature, and the media, about the provenance of some material.

"In addition, QVMAG is aware, through the media, that there are concerns about the Fox Taskforce."

QVMAG said the collection would continue to be made publicly available upon request.

Between 2002 and 2014, the Fox Taskforce spent about $50 million trying to prove the existence of foxes in Tasmania and safeguard the state against the threat of a fox problem.

Every item in QVMAG's collection has tested positive for fox DNA.

But no one has been able to prove irrefutably that the fox material originated on the island.

cclarke@fairfaxmedia.com.au

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