The Fox Eradication Program was advised by an internal report in 2009 that five of the 61 scats found were produced by birds, a wallaby and a snake.

But the government kept the items on record and they remain listed as “evidence of fox activity in Tasmania” to this day.

Fox expert Clive Marks said the fox scat collection, which is housed at Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, was “equivocal” and could no longer be stored under the guise of evidence.

“Most disturbing is that these anomalies appear to have been identified some seven years ago but were not revealed,” he said.

“Overall, this implies that the diligence involved in the collation of this entire data set can now be quite reasonably questioned.”

It is understood the false scats were part of the Labor government's official evidence listing when it received its last round of federal government funding for fox eradication in 2013, worth almost $2 million.

For unknown reasons, the five scats tested positive for fox DNA, despite them not belonging to the species.

Dr Marks – a long-time critic of the fox program’s methods – said the collection remained valuable, however, and said it holds the key to discovering “what went wrong”.

“I note a range of other possible anomalies from the report alone, suggesting that the collection would be worthy of further independent analysis.”

A Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment spokesman said: “The information provided on the department website is the results of testing for DNA material which was provided by the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology which undertook the genetic testing of scats for the Department.”

“The Department notes that a number of matters have been referred to the police and we will wait for that to be completed before commenting further.”

The Fox Eradication Program was launched in 2001 following reports and sightings of the the species in the state.

Between 2001 and 2011, the taskforce found multiple fox carcasses, scats and other DNA on the island.

It spent $50 million in 13 years.