University of Tasmania, Australia

The nineteenth century saw numerous transfers and attempted transfers of animal populations, mostly as the result of the spread of European agriculture. The exchange of animal populations facilitated by the acclimatisation societies that were established in Europe, North America and Australia, among other places, had more complicated meanings. Introduced aliens were often appreciated or deplored in the same terms that were applied to human migrants. Some animal acclimatisations were part of ambitious attempts to transform entire landscapes. Such transfers also broached or blurred the distinction between the domesticated and the wild. The intentional enhancement of the fauna of a region was a forceful assertion of human power. But most planned acclimatisations failed, if they moved beyond the drawing board. And those that succeeded also tended to undermine complacent assumptions about human control.