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Feral Flyer issue 217 – 19 July 2012

Thursday, July 19th, 2012
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In this edition:

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Wild Dog Project Officer vacancy in Queensland

This is a temporary full-time position until June 2015 with the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Toowoomba.

Operating from within Biosecurity Queensland, you will be involved in a collaborative research project on wild dogs. Your role will be to investigate the ecology, impacts and management of wild dogs in peri-urban areas. This position is supported by the Invasive Animals CRC and contributes to the IA CRC’s wild dog research and strategic management program.

Applications close 24th July 2012.
More information: smartjobs.qld.gov.au/ (Job ad reference: QLD/EEDI33639/12) or contact Matthew Gentle 07 4688 1033.

Carp story to feature on ABCTV’s Landline this Sunday

After several years of above-average rainfall, southern Australia is a landscape glimmering with brimming lakes and waterways. Where for years there was parched earth, now there’s life in profusion. But the wet years have provided perfect conditions for Australia’s worst freshwater pest – the European carp. The breaking of the drought spawned tens of millions of young carp. This Spring, they will be big enough to breed. In some areas scientists are predicting a four thousand per cent increase in carp numbers.

The Invasive Animals CRC carp research will feature in a story to be aired on Landline on ABC1 this Sunday 22 July at 12pm. Freshwater Program Leader Wayne Fulton was interviewed for the story during the Carp management in Australia Forum held in Brisbane last month.

Have your say on Australia’s new biosecurity legislation

Feedback is being sought by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) on its response to the Beale review of biosecurity, with new legislation proposed. The draft legislation is designed to manage the risks associated with pests and diseases entering, becoming established or spreading in Australia.

There is a new biosecurity legislation GovSpace site, which will showcase biosecurity legislation related news and items of interest, with the aim of creating an open dialogue with the individuals, companies and industries that might be affected by, or have an interest in, the new legislation that is being developed to replace the century old Quarantine Act 1908.

More information at: http://biosecurity.govspace.gov.au/blog/

End of August AWMS deadlines

The Invasive Animals CRC is a Platinum Sponsor of the 25th Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS) conference which is being held in Adelaide on 27-29 November 2012. The conference theme is: Wildlife Management and Water – How muddied are the waters by a Boom and Bust System?

AWMS has established a Practitioner’s Award to the value of $2,500 (including $1,000 cash) which will reward field practitioners for best practice in wildlife management, including management of invasive species. Applications for this award and also submission of conference papers close on 31 August 2012.

For details see: www.awms.org.au or contact Terry Korn at tjkorn@bigpond.net.au, phone: 0447 847 399 or (02) 6884 7298.

Feral Photos Competition 2012


Wanted: Feral Photos!

The 2012 Feral Photos competition is a free photography competition open to all members of the public. We are looking for the best original photographs of pest animals, pest animal damage, and pest animal control or monitoring activities in Australia. Colour, black and white, sepia-tone, remote camera and panoramic photos will all be accepted.

All entries (a maximum of 3 per person) must be provided in electronic or printed form, together with a completed entry form (download below). Please ensure you read and understand the terms and conditions contained in the entry pack.

Submit your entries by email to: annette.brown@dpi.nsw.gov.au or post to:
Feral Photos 2012 – Invasive Animals CRC,
Annette Brown, Locked Bag 6006,
Orange NSW Australia 2800.

Entries close 30 September 2012. If you have any questions, please contact annette.brown@dpi.nsw.gov.au or jessica.marsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

Download entry pack at: http://www.invasiveanimals.com/feral-photos/

Final month for Innovation Challenge entries

Entries are now open to share in $70,000 in The Australian Innovation Challenge and close on 12 August. Previously, HogHopper™ from the Invasive Animals CRC was one of the runners-up in this competition. The competition is organised by The Australian newspaper in association with Shell and is supported by the federal Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

For further details, visit www.theaustralian.com.au/innovationchallenge.

Australian Rural Leadership Program applications close this month

Applications are now open for Course 20 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP). The program is designed for individuals who will lead rural, regional and remote Australia into the future.

The ARLP offers participants the opportunity to develop leadership skills and increase their knowledge and understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing rural Australia and its primary industries. Graduates of the ARLP form a national network of well informed and effective leaders with the capacity to bring economic, social and environmental benefits to industries and communities. The program commences in May 2013 and concludes in September 2014.

Applications can be lodged online on the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s website. The closing date for all applications is Tuesday, 31 July, 2012.

More information and to apply: www.rural-leaders.com.au/programs/arlp/

Online resource on feral hogs in the USA

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation has joined several land-grant university extension entities throughout the United States to form a “community of practice” that will fight the growing feral hog problem.

This Feral Hog Community of Practice brings together a group of professional educators with expertise on a variety of feral hog related topics. Together, they have launched a new Web-based resource at http://www.extension.org/feral_hogs to help provide agricultural producers, wildlife managers and landowners with critical information and expert application of knowledge to meet the growing demand for timely and accurate information.

Original story: http://beefmagazine.com/health/new-feral-hog-website-provides-national-expertise-resources.

Possible symposium on invasive birds at International Ornithological Congress

The 26th International Ornithological Congress is being held in Tokyo, Japan on 18-24 August 2014 (http://ioc26.jp/).

The call for symposia is currently open. There is a suggestion to have a symposium on “Eradication and control of invasive birds on islands”.

If you are interested in helping organize this symposium or possibly contributing to it please contact Ken Ishida directly;
Dr Ken Ishida, University of Tokyo email: ishiken@es.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The closing date for proposals is 31 July 2012.

New Publications

Scientific Papers

Andrew Taylor, Sean Tracey, Klaas Hartmann and Jawahar Patil (2012). Exploiting seasonal habitat use of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio, in a lacustrine system for management and eradication. Marine and Freshwater Research  63: 587–597

Kate Grarock, Christopher Tidemann, Jeffrey Wood, David Lindenmayer (2012). Is It Benign or Is It a Pariah? Empirical Evidence for the Impact of the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) on Australian Birds PLoS ONE 7(7): e40622

Koichi K, Cottrell A, Sangha KK, & Gordon IJ (2012). Aboriginal rangers’ perspectives on feral pigs: Are they a pest or a resource? A case study in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of northern Queensland. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues 15(1): 2-19

Koichi K, Sangha KK, Cottrell A, & Gordon IJ (2012). Are feral pigs (Sus scrofa) a pest to rainforest tourism? Journal of Ecotourism 11(2): 132-148

Media round-up

Political dreaming: shooters solving pest problems?  The Victorian government has introduced bounties for foxes and wild dogs, $10 for the scalp of a fox, and $50 for that of a dog……… Opinion piece by Brian Cooke on The Conversation  Read full story

‘Just add water’ isn’t enough to fix our rivers.  There is a simplistic campaign being waged by some green groups and politicians that if you ‘just add water’ by taking it from food and fibre production you will have a healthy working river…….. ABC The Drum Read full story

Humans wildlife’s big enemy. IN THE struggle to protect local communities, livestock and native wildlife from wild dogs, it’s up to the human race to take the upper hand according to the latest scientific findings……. The Daily Examiner Read full story

Control feral pigs now. RANGERS from the Tablelands Livestock Health and Pest Authority (LHPA) are encouraging landholders to undertake feral pig control…….. Town and Country Magazine  Read full story

Rock wallaby bounces back in SA. An ecology program in South Australia’s north has been successful in saving a species of wallaby from possible extinction……. ABC Rural Read full story

Concerns hunters will disperse feral animals. Critics argue NSW legislation to allow recreational hunters into national parks will actually make it harder to trap and kill feral animals……. ABC LatelineWatch full story

Goat rebate targets wild dogs. A NEW initiative between one of Australia’s largest goat processors and pastoralists from the Western Division of New South Wales is set to help curb the region’s escalating wild dog problem…….. Stock Journal  Read full story

WA Government eases restrictions on poison use to tackle wild dogs. In a bid to control the Western Australia’s wild dog problem, the State Government has relaxed laws controlling the use of the poison 1080…… ABC Rural Read full story

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference. Townsville 17-20 July
  • Queensland Pest Animal Symposium. Sunshine Coast. 30 July – 2 August
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept
  • National Landcare Conference. Sydney. 3-5 September
  • 58th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society. Port Augusta, South Australia. 23-27 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 216 – 4 July 2012

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

 

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here. Read online.

DOGABATE submission at APVMA

Following the submission by the Invasive Animals CRC of the PAPP new active application and Animal Control Technologies Australia (ACTA) submission of the FOXECUTE PAPP bait registration application to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) in March 2012, the DOGABATE Overview, Manufacturing and Chemistry, Toxicology, Environment and Efficacy Sections of the APVMA submission were submitted by ACTA on 18 June 2012.

A great many people have worked very hard to bring these submissions to this point over many years, with data assembly, field trials in sometime difficult conditions in remote locations, manufacturing and analytical hurdles at many points.

Many of those already acknowledged for the FOXECUTE work have also made massive contributions to the dog bait case, especially Simon Humphrys of the Invasive Animals CRC and Ebony Arms of ACTA who have anchored throughout. Additionally Guy Ballard and both Ben and Lee Allen have made specific contributions to the dog work and also several others with individual trials.

We also believe that both the dog and fox bait submissions should be considered together, as they are mutually supportive. Clearly a bait that works for foxes will also work for dogs. So at last both products are submitted and the seven or more years of struggle is over to stage 1.

Now we have to await the review process and to complete the sale-up and product launch as we get closer to reality. Sale-up is already underway and progressing well. I hope this update brings some joy to all those who have patiently trusted the R&D team!

Prof Linton Staples
Managing Director
Animal Control Technologies Pty Ltd

Wild dog officer vacancies in Qld and Vic

Apply by 6 July for Queensland: Senior Wild Dog Officer
This is a permanent, full-time position with the Qld Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.

Operating from within the Invasive Plants & Animals Program, the successful applicant will have the capacity to make a significant contribution to innovative prevention and control approaches to reduce the impact of wild dogs on industry and the community, by leading a team of experts. The person will be part of a dynamic team that will plan, coordinate and implement operational activities and extension programs for priority pest animal species in collaboration with stakeholders. Forward thinking and leadership skills will be key attributes for this person in order to demonstrate their knowledge and commitment to our stakeholders and to assist with sustainable land use by implementing integrated pest animal control projects in partnership with stakeholders and using best management practices.

More information: smartjobs.qld.gov.au/ or contact Graham Brown on (07) 5453 5812.

Apply by 6 July for Queensland: 4 x Wild Dog Officer positions
Four permanent, full-time positions with the Qld Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation are offered.

Operating from within the Invasive Plants & Animals Program, the successful applicant will have the capacity to make a significant contribution to innovative prevention and control approaches to reduce the impact of wild dogs on industry and the community. The person will be part of a dynamic team that will plan, coordinate and implement operational activities and extension programs for priority pest animal species in collaboration with stakeholders. Forward thinking and leadership skills will be key attributes for this person in order to demonstrate their knowledge and commitment to our stakeholders and to assist with sustainable land use by implementing integrated pest animal control projects in partnership with stakeholders and using best management practices.

More information: smartjobs.qld.gov.au/ or contact Graham Brown on (07) 5453 5812.

Apply by 8 July for Victoria: Biosecurity Officer – Community Coordinator Wild Dog Baiting

If you have a drivers licence, an appropriate Degree in Natural Resource Management or an equivalent science qualification, and experience in working with farmers, sheep and wild dogs, then this job in Victoria may be for you.

Funded by Australian Wool Innovation, with linkages to Bestwool / Bestlamb, this position at Wodonga until 30 June 2015 will perform a key role within the Victorian Department of Primary Industries Invasive Plants and Animals Operations Branch (IPAOB), reporting to the Biosecurity Area Leader – Wild Dogs NE.

This position is responsible for establishing Community Baiting Programs (CBP) across North East Victoria in areas where wild dogs impact livestock producers. You will establish a number of groups and assist them to attain the necessary training to become accredited to use 1080 poison baits for wild dog control.

For further information and to apply online go to: www.careers.vic.gov.au. If you have difficulty in applying for this position on-line, please contact Fiona Taylor on (03) 5430 4440 or email people.advice@dpi.vic.gov.au. For further information, contact Andrew Crocos at Andrew.Crocos@dpi.vic.gov.au or on (02) 6043 7964.

Ban on Savannah Cats upheld by the Full Federal Court

A decision by the former Environment Minister Peter Garrett to ban the importation of Savannah cats has been upheld by the Full Federal Court. Environment Minister Tony Burke said the ban was put in place to protect the environment.

“Hybrid cats carrying genes of the African Serval pose a significant risk to our native wildlife, Minister Burke said. “Native wildlife in almost every part of our country is threatened day after day by feral cats. Everybody who loves the Australian bush should be pleased to know the courts have backed the Government’s refusal to let another predator in. The decision to amend the live import list, effectively banning Savannah cats, was based on expert scientific advice and extensive consultation.”

The Invasive Animals CRC made submissions to the Australian Government supporting the import ban in 2008.

Read the Minister’s media release at: http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/burke/2012/mr20120703.html

Nine applications received for CRC Program Round 15

Applications for the 15th CRC program selection round closed on 14 June 2012. Social innovation, sustainable regional communities and clean manufacturing were announced as the priorities for the 15th CRC selection round on 9 December 2011 (read Minister’s media release). Applications addressing other national priorities were also welcome.

Nine bids – eight new and one supplementary – were received by the deadline. This number is well down on the 26 and 30 bids received in the 2011 and 2010 rounds respectively. The following proposed CRCs have submitted stage one applications:

  • CRC for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorderscrca_logo
  • Safeguarding Biodiversity CRC
  • Prostate Cancer CRC
  • C-ITS CRC – Safe and Sustainable Transport
  • The CRC for Cell Therapy Manufacturing
  • CRC for Space Environment Management
  • Resilient Regions CRC
  • The CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity
  • The Vision CRC (supplementary application)

More information at: https://www.crc.gov.au/

Latest issues of NRM Notes and Eradicate now online

NRM Notes is a newsletter dedicated to regional groups who work cooperatively to reduce the impacts of pest animals in their area. It’s full of good news and case studies that describe how groups are approaching pest management in their area.

The latest edition (Issue 10, June 2012) showcases the NRM Knowledge Conference, The Clarence Valley Indian Myna control project, feral pig control activities of the Central West CMA and LHPA (NSW) and South West NRM (Qld), and The Red Card for the Red Fox program in the Wheatbelt NRM region (WA).

This edition (and past editions) of NRM Notes can be read online or downloaded from: http://www.invasiveanimals.com/media-centre/newsletters/

Eradicate is the quarterly newsletter of the Tasmanian Invasive Species Branch. The latest edition (Issue 7, Winter 2012)  is now available online by clicking here: Eradicate, Issue 7 (Winter 2012).

In this issue you will find the following feature articles:

  •  Not ‘if’ but ‘when’
  •  Together, create and apply solutions
  •  A common enemy
  •  An international spotlight
  •  Your Voice: Q&A Forum

An archive of previous newsletters is also available on our website at www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/invasivespecies

Australian Farmer of the Year Award

Do you know someone who deserves recognition for their contribution to Australia’s agricultural industry?
Categories in the Australian Farmer of the Year Award include:

  •  Australian Farmer of the Year
  •  Rural Leader of the Year
  •  Young farmer of the Year
  •  Dairy farmer of the Year
  •  Biosecurity Farmer of the Year (Plant)
  •  Biosecurity Farmer of the Year (Animal)
  •  Diversification Farmer of the Year
  •  Grain grower of the Year
  •  Wool Producer of the Year
  •  Horticultural Grower of the Year
  •  Livestock Producer of the Year
  •  Farming Woman of the Year

For instance, Biosecurity Farmer of the Year (Animal) Award will recognise farmers who are focused on the biosecurity of their farming enterprise. The Biosecurity Farmer of the Year (animal) is someone who has demonstrated initiative and motivation to address the potential risks to their businesses and their livelihood from diseases, pests and weeds. The winner of each of the 10 award categories automatically qualifies for the prestigious Australian Farmer of the Year Award.

More information and nomination forms are available at www.kondiningroup.com.au/static.ASP?t=2&I=16. Nominations close 3 August 2012. For further information, contact Kate Bishop, Kondinin Marketing & Communications Coordinator on (08) 6263 9111 or events@kondinin.com.au.

Australian Government DAFF stakeholder survey underway

During 2012, the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (DAFF) will develop a new stakeholder charter that will guide the way it will work with its stakeholders. As a first step, the DAFF Stakeholder Survey is now open but closes midnight on 6 July 2012.

You can access the survey by clicking the link here or by copying http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAFFstakeholder into your browser.

The survey will take no more than 10 minutes to complete and your feedback will be confidential. The survey is your opportunity to tell DAFF directly what it does well and not so well. Completing this survey should take no more than 10 minutes of your time and will be confidential and no identifying information stored or kept.

DAFF’s work affects the food Australians eat, the sustainability of our environment and the state of the economy. The department plays a key role in improving the productivity, competiveness and sustainability of its portfolio industries. It also has a key role in facilitating trade—helping people and goods move in and out of the country while managing the risks to the environment and animal, plant and human health.

For further information, phone Amanda Cenin on (02) 6272 5935 or email Amanda.Cenin@daff.gov.au.

New PestSmart information now online

Videos

Feral cats in Australia:  This series of videos gives a general introduction to the problem of feral cats in Australia and discusses their biology, ecology, diet, impacts and options for control.   http://www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

Invasive Animals CRC sponsors pest animal symposium

The Queensland Pest Animal Symposium, 30 July to 2 August this year, at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast is promising to be another outstanding event. The Invasive Animals CRC is a sponsor of the symposium and Andreas Glanznig – CEO of the Invasive Animals CRC will be a keynote speaker. There will also be an Invasive Animals CRC trade display of the latest PestSmart communications products.

The symposium offers great networking and knowledge sharing opportunities and will be enhanced by greater attendance. Visit the symposium’s website for more information and to register: www.pestanimalsymposium.com.au

National Landcare Conference

landcareaustThis year the three day event will be held from 3 to 5 September 2012 during Landcare week at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre Darling Harbour. This conference is a great opportunity to bring together individual Landcarers, Landcare and community groups, regional bodies, natural resource management (NRM) practitioners, international Landcare members and Australian Government representatives.

The conference theme for 2012 is ‘Landcare – the future in our hands’. With a growing interest in and concern for sustainable living and food security, the Landcare community is at the forefront of helping to ensure that Australia can move confidently towards a smart and resilient agricultural and environmental future.

The 2012 conference will provide delegates with an opportunity to learn about and share innovative practice approaches and solutions as well as opportunities to renew contacts, build new networks, share ideas and discuss challenges within the wider Landcare community.

The National Landcare Awards will be held during the conference and all finalists will present on their award recognised projects. As a conference attendee you will have the opportunity to speak directly to the nominees and presenters through question and answer sessions.

More information, registration and call for abstracts is available at: www.daff.gov.au/landcareconference.

Public consultation opens for next phase of Caring for our Country

cfocThe community is invited to help shape the next phase of Caring for our Country by participating in a new round of public consultation from now to 15 August 2012.

Environment Minister Tony Burke and Agriculture Minister Senator Joe Ludwig released An Outline for the Future, (download from www.caringforourcountryreview.com.au), which sets out the broad framework for the next five years of Caring for our Country.

The objectives in An Outline for the Future have been developed after extensive consultation with the community and reflect national and community priorities for natural resource management across Australia. The Australian Government has provided $2.2 billion for a second five-year phase of Caring for our Country which will commence on 1 July 2013.

The Caring for our Country sustainable agriculture stream will focus on food security, managing natural resources sustainably and addressing the impact of weeds and pests on agricultural production. Current intergovernmental activities relating to new incursions for weeds, pests and diseases will also be brought under Caring for our Country.

The sustainable environment stream will focus on protecting and managing nationally significant flora and fauna, ecological communities, ecosystems, land and seascapes. It will also focus on enhancing the capacity of Indigenous communities to conserve and protect natural resources.

For information on the public consultation process or to download a copy of An Outline for the Future, visit: www.caringforourcountryreview.com.au.

New Publications

Scientific Papers

Giovanna Massei et al (2012). Long-term effects of immunocontraception on wild boar fertility, physiology and behaviour. Wildlife research  39(5) 378-385

Pip Masters and Chris R. Dickman (2012). Population dynamics of Dasycercus blythi (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in central Australia: how does the mulgara persist? Wildlife Research 39(5) 419-428

Hans Peter Hansen, M. Nils Peterson and Charlotte Jensen (2012). Demographic transition among hunters: a temporal analysis of hunter recruitment dedication and motives in Denmark. Wildlife Research 39(5) 446-451

Richard Bischof et al (2012). Implementation uncertainty when using recreational hunting to manage carnivores. Journal of Applied Ecology Online version

Media round-up

How Effective is Shooting Feral Animals? While the legislation allowing hunters into national parks has passed both houses of the state parliament and is set to be gazetted in the coming weeks, the debate still rages as to whether it will be effective in reducing feral animal numbers………  ABC 702 Sydney  Listen to full story

Dingoes gone from Vic. THERE are virtually no pure dingoes left in Victoria, according to new research…….. Weekly Times  Read full story

A squealy pest issue letting loose. IN THE latest act of agricultural vandalism to hit the region, feral pigs are allegedly being brought into the Southern Downs and Granite Belt and released for hunting purposes……. Warwick Daily News Read full story

Pastoralists take wild dog fight online. PASTORALISTS and farmers across WA are joining together and taking the fight against wild dogs online……… Farm Weekly  Read full story

Perth ‘cane toad’ has lucky escape. A suspected Perth cane toad has turned out to be a native banjo frog………  Nine News  Read full story

Shot kills rogue dog. A 22 kilogram wild dog responsible for the death of many sheep has been caught and killed on a Mount Mackenzie property…….. Tenterfield Star Read full story

National Parks target feral pigs. FERAL pig control is a high priority, according to Bandjalang Aboriginal man Tony Wilson, who has been employed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Northern Rivers Region…… Northern Star Read full story

Geelong a hot spot for illegal critters. GEELONG and Colac are known hot spots for illegal exotic animals, with snakes, turtles and iguanas top of the high-risk list……. Geelong Advertiser  Read full story

Ex ranger says baits the best option. A former north coast pest-control officer says baiting remains the best option for dealing with feral animals……. ABC North Coast NSW  Read full story

PestSmart social media

Remember to follow PestSmart on social media. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2 PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference. Townsville 17-20 July
  • Queensland Pest Animal Symposium. Sunshine Coast. 30 July – 2 August
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept
  • National Landcare Conference. Sydney. 3-5 September
  • 58th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society. Port Augusta, South Australia. 23-27 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 215 – 20 June 2012

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

 

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here.

New era for the Invasive Animals CRC

June 30 marks the end of the current Invasive Animals CRC funding term. Feral Flyer readers will know that we were successful in securing a five-year extension to take us to 2017, however this is under a new Commonwealth Agreement and in many ways is a new CRC. IA CRC Chair Helen Cathles, Deputy Chair Dedee Woodside, and CEO Andreas Glanznig (pictured right) signed the new Commonwealth Agreement at a final staff dinner for the current CRC in Canberra last week and the Agreement was executed with the Australian Government on Monday.

Due to the finalisation of many projects, the end of the current CRC also sees the closure of the Adelaide office and the departure of several valued staff members over the next few months including:

  • Kate Lawrence (Canberra administration assistant)
  • Susan Duson (Business Manager)
  • Wayne Fulton (Freshwater Program Leader)
  • Kylie Hall (Freshwater Program coordinator)
  • Elaine Murphy (Detection and Prevention Program Leader)
  • Stephen Sarre (Education Program Leader)
  • Sascha Rettke (Uptake Program Coordinator)
  • Kathleen Steed (Adelaide office manager)

All these people have been key members of the Invasive Animals CRC team. We will miss working with them all and wish them great success in their future endeavours.

PestSmart Roadshows come to a close

A big crowd in attendance at the Bairnsdale Roadshow

After five months and twenty events across all states and territories of Australia, the PestSmart Roadshow has finally come to a close. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and three extra shows (Alice Springs and Katherine in the Northern Territory and Campbell Town in Tasmania) were added to the original program.

We sincerely thank everyone who attended any of the Roadshows and trust you found them worthwhile. We hope to upload presentations from the roadshows to the www.feral.org.au/PestSmart website in the future. A reminder that all the publications distributed at the Roadshows, plus new ones published more recently, can already be found online.

The roadshows were made possible by the invaluable support of Invasive Animals CRC partners Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and Animal Control Technologies (ACTA). We thank all these organisations for their assistance in this project. Special mention also to Ian Ware and the team from Australian Public Address for the sterling  effort (and many, many kilometers) put in to ensure our audiovisual needs were met.

Thanks also to all the presenters that attended the roadshows, some of you getting along to several dates involving a lot of time on the road. Suzy Balogh put in a superhuman effort to be our MC and ‘Hostess with the Mostest’ at all 20 Roadshows! Unbelievably, she also managed to qualify for the London Olympics during this time and is now in a training camp in Europe. Suzy will be competing in the trap shooting event in which she won the gold medal at the Athens Olympics. I’m sure all Feral Flyer readers wish Suzy all the best for the games!

Emily King (AWI) and Blair Brice (MLA) at the Armidale Roadshow Speakers (L to R): Suzy Balogh, Brian Cooke, Peter Fleming, Jess Marsh, Chris Lane, Greg Mifsud, Steve Lapidge

New RIRDC pest and weeds risk assessment introduced

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has launched a new assessment framework that will play an important role in helping prevent the introduction and spread of new pests and weeds in Australia. The assessment process will be used in all of RIRDC’s research projects that include prospective production plants and animals.The RIRDC publication ‘An invasive risk assessment framework for new animal and plant-based production industries’ can be downloaded from: https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/11-141

Camera trapping for wildlife surveys

The Australasian Wildlife Management Society in collaboration with the Invasive Animals CRC and partners are hosting a Camera Trapping in Wildlife Management and Research Colloquium at the ANZ Lecture Theatre, Taronga Zoo in Sydney, 13-14 September 2012.

To help us with developing the program and organising the Colloquium, please register your interest. The techniques are primarily for ecologists and conservation managers, but there is also much opportunity for anyone and everyone working in basic wildlife ecology, natural history and conservation.

For further details, visit:http://www.onqconferences.com.au/events/ctc/home.php

New Queensland officers to fight ticks, weeds and wild dogs

THE Queensland Government has announced 15 new officers will start working to help producers in their fight against ticks, weeds and feral pests, particularly wild dogs, which Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) John McVeigh says is part of a promise to revitalise frontline services in the stand-alone Department.

The Queensland Farmers Federation welcomed this commitment, while also noting that all government departments, including DAFF, are in a phase of considerable cost-cutting. QFF said that it would be watching closely to ensure that this does not impact upon services on offer to other aspects of primary industry and that DAFF remains fully resourced and equipped to tackle challenges facing the industry, beyond the headline announcements of new Biosecurity Officers.

Invasive Animals CRC PhD scholarships

Imagine working on your doctorate in the stimulating and supportive intellectual environment of a leading Australian university with four years’ funding support, compared to the usual three years.

Your PhD research will work with cutting-edge technology and achieve practical solutions to a real $1 billion research problem. Invasive animals damage the Australian environment and reduce agricultural productivity.

Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) PhD scholarships are the only Australian PhD scholarship that offer a total of four years funding as well as additional specialised training that provides successful PhDs with a marketing advantage over others in the marketplace.

19 PhDs are currently available in innovative research projects covering ecology, virology, molecular biology, natural resource modelling, sociology, socio-economics and herbivore fertility control.

Applications for study commencing in 2013 close on 17 August 2012.

More info: http://www.invasiveanimals.com/phd-scholarship-applications/

New PestSmart information now online

Factsheets and case studies

RHD Boost - Enhancing RHDV effectiveness:
Fact sheet covering current research to boost the effectiveness of RHDV as a biological control for rabbits in Australia.  www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-rhd-boost/

Warren and harbour destruction for rabbit control: Factsheet on the the use of warren ripping in rabbit control.   www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-warren-and-harbour-destruction/

Poison baiting for rabbit control: Fact sheet covering the use of poison baiting for controlling rabbits in Australia. www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-poison-baiting-for-rabbit-control/

Case study – Foxes on Phillip Island: Case study on the current attempt to eradicate foxes from Phillip Island off the Victorian coast. www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-foxes-on-phillip-island/

Case Study – Declaring the fox a pest in NSW: Case study on the usefulness of legislative powers to improve fox management. www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-declaring-the-fox-a-pest-in-nsw/

Fencing for fox control:  Factsheet on the use of fencing for fox control.  www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-fencing-for-fox-control/

Advances in the molecular ecology of foxes:  Fact sheet covering the use of DNA analysis for investigating and monitoring fox populations and behaviour in Australia.  www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-advances-in-the-molecular-ecology-of-foxes/

Foxes in Tasmania:  Fact sheet covering evidence collection and analysis and the fox eradication program in Tasmania.  www.feral.org.au/pestsmart-foxes-in-tasmania/

Technical reports

A manual for carp control -The Tasmanian model: describes the progressive and integrated approaches that were employed to control/eradicate carp in Tasmania and that are likely to be of relevance elsewhere.  www.feral.org.au/manual-for-carp-control-tasmanian-model/

Videos

Warren ripping for rabbit control: Lisa Thomas discusses and demonstrates warren ripping using a single tyne ripper for rabbit control.  www.feral.org.au/warren-ripping-for-rabbit-control/

PIGOUT® baits for feral pig control: Steve Lapidge discusses and demonstrates the use of the PIGOUT® 1080 bait for feral pig control. www.feral.org.au/pigout-baits-for-feral-pig-control/

Use of the HogHopper® for baiting of feral pigs: Jason Wishart discusses and demonstrates the use of the HogHopper® bait delivery device for feral pig control. Aspects such as assembly, site selection, pre-feeding and toxic baiting are covered. www.feral.org.au/hoghopper-for-baiting-of-feral-pigs/

New tools for feral pig control: HOG-GONE® and sodium nitrite: Steve Lapidge discusses the development of the HOG-GONE® bait and sodium nitirite concentrate as a new toxin for feral pig control.  www.feral.org.au/new-tools-for-feral-pig-control/

Trapping for feral pig control: Jason Neville and Paul Meek discuss and demonstrate the use of both a silo mesh or heat-shaped trap and the panel trap for catching feral pigs. www.feral.org.au/trapping-for-feral-pig-control/

Development of new toxins for wild dog and fox control: Simon Humphrys discusses new toxins being developed for wild dog and fox control. www.feral.org.au/new-toxins-for-wild-dog-and-fox-control/

Fresh Science nominations extended

Fresh Science is a communication boot camp for researchers no more than five years out from their PhD. It creates a cadre of media and public-friendly scientists and generates hundreds of media stories about Australian science.

We’re looking for:

  •  early-career researchers (from honours students up to five years post-PhD);
  •  with a peer-reviewed discovery which has had no media coverage;
  •  and some ability to present ideas in everyday English.

Applications for Fresh Science have been extended and now close at 5pm next Friday 29 June.

There are more details and information about past winners at www.freshscience.org.au

Hunt on for nation’s best ideas

The search is on for the nation’s greatest ideas – in fields from environmental science to education – through the $70,000 The Australian Innovation Challenge awards. The awards are run by The Australian newspaper in association with Shell with the support of the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

Minister for Industry and Innovation Greg Combet said innovation is about enabling discovery and new ways of delivering high-quality goods and services. The goal is to help drive game-changing breakthroughs by scientists, engineers, technologists, educators and backyard inventors to commercialisation or adoption.

One of the finalists last year was the HogHopper™ from the Invasive Animals CRC. Clive Mathieson, editor of The Australian, said last year’s inaugural challenge attracted more than 300 entries.  “The calibre of entries submitted in 2011 was astounding,” he said. “We’re keen to see what ideas we’ll uncover this time round.” Dr Terry Cutler, CSIRO deputy chairman and leader of the federal government’s 2008 review of the national innovation system, will head the judging panel again this year.

The awards, which are open to both individuals and teams, have seven professional categories, each carrying a prize of $5,000. The overall winner of the professional categories will receive a further $25,000. An eighth category, Backyard Innovation, is open to the general public and has a $10,000 prize. The categories are:

  • minerals and energy
  • environment, agriculture and food
  • education
  • health
  • ICT
  • manufacturing and hi-tech design
  • community services
  • backyard innovation.

More info & the enter: www.theaustralian.com.au/innovationchallenge. Entries close 12 August 2012.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species update released

The source of our food, medicines and clean water, as well the livelihoods of millions of people may be at risk with the rapid decline of the world’s animal, plant and fungi species. The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, released on Tuesday on the eve of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, shows that of the 63,837 species assessed, 19,817 are threatened with extinction, including 41% of amphibians, 33% of reef building corals, 25% of mammals, 13% of birds, and 30% of conifers. The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity.

Invasive alien species are one of the leading and most rapidly growing threats to food security, human and animal health and biodiversity. A recent analysis of IUCN Red List data highlighted invasive alien species as the fifth most severe threat to amphibians, and the third most severe threat to birds and mammals. Together with climate change, they have become one of the most difficult threats to reverse. Solutions incorporating awareness and prevention measures, as well as early warning and rapid response systems that include containment, control and eradication programmes, need to be implemented on both a regional and global scale in order to reduce the negative effects of alien species.

More info: IUCN media release: Securing the web of life. See also Threat to the Amazon’s birds is greater than ever

Australian Mammal Society Conference

Online registration is now open for the 58th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society in Port Augusta, SA, September 23-27. Abstracts for both spoken papers and posters must be submitted with registration payment by 1 August 2012.

Meeting highlights will include:

  • Marine Mammal Symposium
  • Reintroduction Biology Symposium
  • Upper Spencer Gulf marine tour
  • 3-day post-conference tour including “Bounceback” in the Flinders Ranges and “Arid Recovery” near Roxby Downs (mammal highlights: yellow-footed rock wallabies, bilbies, western barred bandicoots, burrowing bettongs, sticknest rats, spinifex hopping mice; also plenty to see for the bird watchers and the herpetologists).

More info: www.mammals2012.com/

New Publications

Papers and articles
Ed Yong (2012). To control cannibal toads, you just need the right bait. Not Exactly Rocket Science blog, Discover Magazine.

Sarah Zielinski (2012). Profile: Rick Shine. The Reluctant Toad Killer. Science  15 June 2012: 1375-1377

Lee Allen, Mark Goullet and Russell Palmer (2012). The diet of the dingo (Canis lupus dingo and hybrids) in north-eastern Australia: a supplement to the paper of Brook and Kutt (2011) The Rangeland Journal  34(2) 211-217

Steven J. Lapidge and Adam J. Munn (2012). Seasonal field metabolic rate and water influx of captive-bred reintroduced yellow-footed rock-wallabies (Petrogale xanthopus celeris) Australian Journal of Zoology 59(6) 400-406

Mary-Lou Considine (2012). Macquarie Island is back in bloom ECOS Magazine May 2012

Media round-up

Ask and you shall receive – smart consultation leads to better science. Worldwide, and especially in Australia, much valuable science is being wasted or stalled through what is known as technology rejection – the public’s hostile reception of new technologies or scientific advice…….. The Conversation  Read full story

Wild dogs. The IA CRC creates new technologies and integrated strategies to reduce the impact of invasive animals on Australia’s economy, environment, and people……. Weekly Times  Read full story

Hunting is back. Interview with Dr Carla Meurk on some of the social attitudes towards firearms and hunting……… 702 ABC Sydney  Listen to full story

The critical role in wild dog control. NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) and NSW Farmers Association have joined forces in the fight against wild dogs and are calling on the state’s landholders to report any wild dog activity or livestock losses……..The Rural  Read full story

Fence ready to change ‘Hillalong’ fortunes. IT has cost $230,000 and taken two years, but Bill Chandler (pictured) has this week completed 34km of fencing to keep the wild dogs out…….Queensland Country Life  Read full story

Tips to put bite on wild dogs. Producer groups and local authorities should be planning community baiting programs against wild dogs and foxes now ahead of the spring calving, lambing and kidding season……Beef Central  Read full story

NSW farmers told to report wild dog activity. NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) and NSW Farmers’ Association have joined forces in the fight against wild dogs and are calling on the State’s landholders to report any wild dog activity or livestock losses…….The Land  Read full story

Return to sheep?. A Muswellbrook beef cattle farmer believes wool growing will return to the area if wild dogs are brought under control once and for all……Hunter Valley News  Read full story

Wild dog numbers `could explode’. CHILDREN have been threatened in their own backyards by wild dogs and adults have had to fight off a pack that surrounded them in Tasmania’s North-West.. …. The Examiner  Read full story

Wild dog battle unites stakeholders. ONE of the greatest threats facing the sheep industry is being addressed through effective collaboration between miners, sheep producers and natural resource managers…..The Land  Read full story

Outfoxing predators at Goonoo. A RECENTLY killed lamb lay on the verandah outside the meeting room of the Goonoo Fox Baiting Group, an example of the damage the feral animal can cause to sheep flocks……. The Land  Read full story

Wild dog trapped after 230 sheep kills. A WILD dog credited with 230 known sheep kills has been trapped on a property east of Moree…… Cowra Community News  Read full story

Ensay’s wild dog fighters. THE picturesque Gippsland high country region of Ensay used to have a thriving sheep industry…….. Weekly Times  Read full story

PestSmart social media

Remember to follow PestSmart on social media. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2 PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Carp Management in Australia Forum. Melbourne 19-21 June
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference. Townsville 17-20 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept
  • 58th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society. Port Augusta, South Australia. 23-27 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 214 – 31 May 2012

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here.

PestSmart Roadshow

The Invasive Animals CRC’s PestSmart Roadshow is rapidly coming to a close. Next week we  will be visiting Bourke and Charleville with Tasmania the week after.

Don’t forget the Carp Management Forum in Melbourne June 19-21.

More information and registration is available online at http://www.pestsmart.eventbrite.com/. Registration for all events is free

Date Event Location
Tuedsay 5 June Charleville Roadshow Charleville RSL Club
Thursday 7 June Bourke Roadshow Diggers on the Darling
Thursday 14 June Campbell Town, TAS Roadshow New Grange Meeting Centre
Tuesday 19 June Carp Management in Australia Forum Bell City Event Centre

 

Freshwater report scientific editing: Consultancy

Job Brief:

Collect, compile and technically edit to publication ready stage, the written proceedings and summaries of the verbal question/answer and discussions from both the Tilapia (Brisbane 15-16 May 2012) and Carp (Melbourne 19-20 June 2012) forums conducted by the IA CRC Roadshow Project.  Provide technical editorial advice on Freshwater Program final reports and publications and tilapia and carp fact sheets and case studies that have not been finalised by the 30 June 2012.

All tasks to be completed by 31 December 2012 with all editorial requirements to be advised to the consultant by no later than 30 September 2012. The IACRC invites expressions of interest from suitably qualified and experienced consultants by 14 June 2012 to Kylie Hall, Freshwater Program Coordinator, email: kylie.hall@dpi.vic.gov.au For more information, contact Kylie on (03) 5258 0281.

 

Feral Photos Competition 2012

Wanted: Feral Photos!

The 2012 Feral Photos competition is a free photography competition open to all members of the public. We are looking for the best original photographs of pest animals, pest animal damage, and pest animal control or monitoring activities in Australia. Colour, black and white, sepia-tone, remote camera and panoramic photos will all be accepted.

All entries (a maximum of 3 per person) must be provided in electronic or printed form, together with a completed entry form (download below). Please ensure you read and understand the terms and conditions contained in the entry pack.

Submit your entries by email to: annette.brown@dpi.nsw.gov.au or post to:
Feral Photos 2012 – Invasive Animals CRC,
Annette Brown, Locked Bag 6006,
Orange NSW Australia 2800.

Entries close 30 September 2012. If you have any questions, please contact annette.brown@dpi.nsw.gov.au or jessica.marsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

Download entry pack at: http://www.invasiveanimals.com/feral-photos/

Urban foxes in Melbourne documentary

Basil Curtis, a 3rd year journalism student at Monash University, has produced a 10-minute documentary on urban foxes in Melbourne. Basil grew up in Bendigo and his family is from the country so when he found out about his cousin shooting 22 foxes in a night on his farm, he became interested in the topic. Basil conducted an Internet search and found out that there’s more foxes in the city than the country. After a quick survey of his university classmates who did not know knew anything about foxes, he knew he had his story.

“The hardest and most ironic part of making the documentary was in spite of the number of foxes in Melbourne (and even though I’d seen them with my own eyes) I couldn’t easily get any on tape,” Basil said. “I guess what has stayed with me from my two months of fox information research the most is their adaptiveness. They will eat anything, sleep anywhere – and foxes are street smart and sly”.

Basil interviewed many fox experts for his documentary including Linton Staples from Animal Control Technologies in Melbourne, a Participant organisation to the Invasive Animals CRC.

Watch Melbourne Foxes on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcD29yYHvJ8

Your thoughts sought on proposed NSW Non-Indigenous Animals Regulation

NSWDPINon-indigenous or exotic animals are a feature of everyday life for many Australians. They include most of our pets, agricultural animals and a range of reptiles, birds and mammals housed in zoos and wildlife parks. The Non-Indigenous Animals Act 1987 was established to assist in the management of controlled category non-indigenous animals within NSW and to prevent them from becoming pests to agricultural production, the environment, or a threat to human health and safety.

This year the Non-Indigenous Animals Regulation is due for repeal as a part of the normal legislative review process. The proposed Regulation has been published by the Department of Primary Industries and is available for public comment from Friday, 18 May 2012 to Friday, 15 June 2012. Interested parties can obtain copies of the proposed Regulation and explanatory documents by downloading them from the following link or by telephoning (02) 6391 3722 and requesting copies.

More information and proposed changes:
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/about/legislation-acts/review/repeal-of-non-indigenous-animals-regulation-2006

Invasive Animals CRC PhD scholarships

Imagine working on your doctorate in the stimulating and supportive intellectual environment of a leading Australian university with four years’ funding support, compared to the usual three years.

Your PhD research will work with cutting-edge technology and achieve practical solutions to a real $1 billion research problem. Invasive animals damage the Australian environment and reduce agricultural productivity.

Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) PhD scholarships are the only Australian PhD scholarship that offer a total of four years funding as well as additional specialised training that provides successful PhDs with a marketing advantage over others in the marketplace.

19 PhDs are currently available in innovative research projects covering ecology, virology, molecular biology, natural resource modelling, sociology, socio-economics and herbivore fertility control.

Applications for study commencing in 2013 close on 17 August 2012.

More info: http://www.invasiveanimals.com/phd-scholarship-applications/

The biggest snapshot of science engagement in Australia

It’s a picture as big as Australia. A flash of light illuminating how people are getting science out there. And it’s the first time it’s been done.
The picture shows everyone who is engaging people with any science, from anywhere, any organisation, even into the future—that’s the goal.

Inspiring Australia wants to create a snapshot of all of the diverse science communication activities and programs going on between January 2011 and June 2013, and we need the help of anyone doing science engagement across the country

People can help by filling out a survey about the science engagement that they’re a part of. We’ll put the results into a visual national online database that anyone can explore. The database is part of a national audit that will help us all understand:

  • who are Australia’s players in science engagement—internationally, nationally, regionally and locally
  • where and who is missing out on science engagement
  • if and how Australians respond to science engagement activities
  • how people can link their activities or ideas together
  • how people are evaluating their engagement activities, or not
  • how we can create better tools for evaluation
  • the bigger picture of science engagement in Australia—with lots of opportunity for research.

The survey and database are being created in response to the Inspiring Australia Expert Working Group report Developing an Evidence Base for Science Engagement. It’s the first of a suite of projects tackling the report’s recommendations.

The audit will help science communicators to be seen as part of the big picture of science engagement in Australia and their standing with respect to the world.

This Inspiring Australia initiative is supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research & Tertiary Education in partnership with Econnect, Bridge8, ASC and UWA.

Fill the survey out at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/scienceengageaudit   It closes 30 June 2012.

New Publications

Best Practice Camel Book
This book is an illustrated reference of the Australian Standard and Guidelines for the land transport of camels, The Code of Practice for the humane control of feral camels; and Standard Operating Procedures for mustering and ground shooting of feral camels.
Download or order hardcopies at: http://solutions.pir.sa.gov.au/publications/best_practice_camel_book/

Journal Publications
Fujinuma J and RD Harrison (2012). Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) mediate large-scale edge effects in a lowland tropical rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia. PLoS ONE doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037321.

Brian D. Cooke (2012). Rabbits: manageable environmental pests or participants in new Australian ecosystems? Wildlife Research  39(4) 279-289

Christa Beckmann and Richard Shine (2012). How many of Australia’s ground-nesting birds are likely to be at risk from the invasive Cane Toad (Rhinella marina)? Emu  112(2) 83-89

K. M. Haythorpe, D. Sulikowski and D. Burke (2012). Relative levels of food aggression displayed by Common Mynas when foraging with other bird species in suburbia. Emu 112(2) 129-136

Media round-up

Community attitudes guide pest animals research. In a world-first Australia-wide moving picture of ongoing public attitudes in real time regarding invasive animals and methods to control them, invasive animals have remained remarkably consistent as areas of high community concern……..Invasive Animals CRC Read full media release

Wild dogs costing $180m. A NATIONAL approach is needed to combat the growing wild dog problem which is costing woolgrowers about $180 million a year……Border Mail Read full story

Dog attacks drive sheep farmers wild. FRUSTRATED farmers are shying away from reporting wild dog attacks…..Weekly Times Read full story

Rabbits, water quality and the RMA. If there was a more virulent variety of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in Australia that could be useful in New Zealand, then the Government would not say it could not be introduced……Otago Daily Times Read full story

Shooters invited to remove park pests. LICENCED shooters will be allowed to cull pests in the State’s national parks, nature reserves and state conservation areas…..The Land Read full story

Mice munch away at Munglinup. Farmers on our state’s south coast are bracing themselves for a mouse plague worse than the 2009 outbreak. …. ABC Rural Read full story

Hume wild dog programs successful. The results of a landholder survey undertaken by the Hume Livestock Health and Pest Authority (LHPA) have shown that their wild dog programs are successful and contribute to farmer’s enterprises and general wellbeing. …..Southern Weekly Read full story

Pest and weeds targeted. Valuable research and management options about rabbits, wild dogs, feral pigs, parthenium, African lovegrass, lantana and giant rat’s tail grass, will be under the spotlight…… Queensland Country Life Read full story

PestSmart social media

Remember to follow PestSmart on social media. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2 PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Carp Management in Australia Forum. Melbourne 19-21 June
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept
  • 58th Scientific Meeting of the Australian Mammal Society. Port Augusta, South Australia. 23-27 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 213 – 17 May 2012

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

 

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here.

Fun Fact of the dayglen_saunders_thumb

60 years ago there were no mobile phones – but there was a Glen Saunders!

Happy Birthday to Terrestrial Products and Strategies Program Leader Glen Saunders who recently turned 60! He almost managed to let it slide unnoticed, but not quite.

We hope you celebrated in style Glen.

PestSmart Roadshow: new events announced in Northern Territory and Tasmania!

Due to overwhelming demand – the Invasive Animals CRC’s PestSmart Roadshow will be visiting three additional venues in the coming weeks!

The PestSmart Roadshow is a rare opportunity to see, hear and chat about new products and the latest innovations in pest animal management with some of Australia’s leading pest animal experts. We have had a great response from NRM groups, government agencies, communities and landholders at our Roadshows throughout Australia so far. We hope that even more of you will now be able to come along to one of our shows in the Northern Territory or Tasmania.

Don’t forget our 2 rescheduled shows in early June (Bourke and Charleville) and the Carp Management Forum in Melbourne on June 19.

Registration for all events is free online at http://www.pestsmart.eventbrite.com/. Watch this space or follow us on twitter or facebook for updates.

Date Event Location
Tuesday 29 May Alice Springs Roadshow Crowne Plaza
Tursday 31 May Katherine Roadshow AllSeasons Katherine
Tuedsay 5 June Charleville Roadshow Charleville RSL Club
Thursday 7 June Bourke Roadshow Diggers on the Darling
Thursday 14 June Campbell Town, TAS Roadshow New Grange Meeting Centre
Tuesday 19 June Carp Management in Australia Forum Bell City Event Centre

 

NRMs engage with PestSmart

Our NRM Liaison & Engagement Project Team has seen a great response from the NRMs and CMAs about the recent PestSmart Roadshows. Several NRM agencies have included information about PestSmart in their regular newsletters and on their websites, and we’ve had lots of enquiries! Everyone has been very positive and excited about the new tools and technologies. Many people have come to us to request further information, extra resources or assistance, while others simply want to discuss pest management options for their area.

We also went along to the recent National NRM Knowledge Conference held in Adelaide, where on-ground practitioners, planning and policy officers, and researchers from across Australia met together to discuss ‘what’s happening in our backyard’. Many delegates visited our exhibition booth (pictured) and were able to pick up copies of the wide range of PestSmart and Invasive Animals CRC publications. It’s really great to see the NRM agencies and other land managers embracing PestSmart – so well done to everyone who has been involved!

Federal Budget 2012-1

Biosecurity
Australia’s biosecurity system lies at the heart of our position as a trading nation.  The 2012–13 Budget provides $524.2 million in new funding:

  • $379.9 million over seven years for the construction and operation of a new Australian Government owned and operated post entry quarantine facility for high risk plant and animal imports.
  • $124.5 million over four years (and then on an ongoing basis) for core risk response capability supporting biosecurity operations at international airports and mail centres.
  • $19.8 million over three years to support biosecurity information and communication technology infrastructure.

On top of the wider biosecurity investment a separate $95.9 million over seven years allocated from the Caring for our Country program will fund existing eradication programs for nationally significant pests and diseases.  This ongoing allocation will ensure future incursions can be brought under control as soon as possible.

Caring for our Country
The Budget provides the Caring for our Country program with $2.2 billion from 2013–14 to 2017–18 in order to protect and conserve our biodiversity and promote the adoption of sustainable farm practices. From July 2013, Caring for our Country will be delivered through two specific streams – one dedicated to sustainable environment and the other to sustainable agriculture.

CRC Association reaction
The CRC Association said that the Federal Government has avoided cuts to Science and Technology in a tough Budget. CRCA CEO Professor Tony Peacock said that although the Cooperative Research Centres Program continues to drop for two years to a low of $146 million, it then builds to $168 million in the last year of the Forward Estimates.  The Collaborative Research Networks are restored to around $20 million following last year’s cuts.  New money becomes available in clean technology program as a result of the Clean Energy futures program.

Links:

 

MLA FeedbackTV: Controlling pests and predators

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) is a key partner with the IA CRC in the development of new tools for control of wild dogs, foxes and feral pigs.

This new MLA FeedbackTV episode outlines the benefits to livestock producers of these products and MLA’s continued support of the IA CRC. It also features IA CRC Chair, Helen Cathles.

Watch FeedbackTV on YouTube:

Controlling pests and predators (MLA feedbackTV ep17)

Camera Trapping Colloquium: Call for Abstracts

Camera trapping is the hot technique for wildlife monitoring, but do we expect more than the technology can provide?

The Australasian Wildlife Management Society in collaboration with the Invasive Animals CRC and partners are hosting a Camera Trapping in Wildlife Management and Research Colloquium at the ANZ Lecture Theatre, Taronga Zoo, Sydney Australia, 13-14 September 2012.

The Colloquium is open to any researcher, land manager or student who uses camera trapping to carry out research and monitoring of wildlife and will also bring together Australian and International camera trap trade displays. A two-day program is being developed based on the themes of Data and image management, identification and analysis; Camera trapping for animal monitoring; Survey design, standards and protocols; and Camera technology, constraints and pitfalls.

Call for Abstracts is now open and will close 8 June. Please register your interest now.

More information, sponsorship and to register: http://www.onqconferences.com.au/events/ctc/home.php

Wanted: feral cat photos

Kana Koichi is currently preparing feral cat publications and video clips for the PestSmart Toolkit. She is looking for good pictures of feral cats to use in these. Camera trap photos may also be used. If you have any and can help her out, please email: kana.koichi@invasiveanimals.com

PhD student profile: Scott van Barneveld

Congratulations are in order for Dr Scott van Barneveld who was part of the IA CRC Balanced Scientist program and will have his PhD conferred from the University of Sydney on 15 June.

Scott conducted research to determine “what makes a successful invasive species?” Using a group of Australian lizards (genus Lampropholis) that contains both invasive and non-invasive species, he was able to determine some factors crucial to invasive success. These factors include the ability to tolerate different climates, the willingness to utilise human-mediated transport vectors, and the response of a species to predators.

Scott found that successful invaders are those that are able to thrive in different climates, utilise human-mediated transport vectors to spread, and evade predation. In contrast, non-invasive species with limited geographic distributions are those that are fine-tuned to within a narrow thermal niche, and perform poorly outside of comparatively specialised climatic conditions. Scott’s results will assist in modelling risk assessments and geographic distributions for potentially invasive species in a global context.

We congratulate Scott and wish him all the best in his future career.

Staged repeal of the Game and Feral Animal regulation 2004

The Game and Feral Animal Control Regulation 2004 is subject to staged repeal under the requirements of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1989.

The NSW Government is proposing to make a new Regulation, the Game and Feral Animal Control Regulation 2012. The proposed Regulation remakes, with amendments, the 2004 Regulation.

The proposed Regulation will be made under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002. The objects of the Act are to provide for the effective management of introduced species of game animals, and to promote the responsible and orderly hunting of game animals on public and private land and of certain pest animals on public land.

The proposed Regulation seeks to ensure the objects of the Act are achieved by prescribing matters concerning licences including the conditions of game hunting licences, the duration of licences, licence fees, grounds for refusal of a licence and penalty notice offences.

The proposed Regulation and Regulatory Impact Statement will be available for public comment from Friday, 4 May 2012 until Friday, 8 June 2012.

More information: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/about/legislation-acts/review/staged-repeal-of-the-game-and-feral-animal-control-regulation-2004

Biological invasions

The first State Of The Planet Declaration was issued at the recent Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference, the largest gathering of global change scientists leading up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) from 4 June to 6 June 2012.

Biological invasions are a growing threat to biodiversity, human health and food security, according to policy recommendations for Rio+20 drafted by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group and IUCN’s Invasive Species Initiative.

Several ISSG members were concerned with the limited attention being paid to the issue of biological invasions and invasive alien species in the Rio+20 process.  Members proposed the development and submission of a policy paper highlighting the growing threat of biological invasions on biodiversity, human health and food security for the Rio+20 process.

After extensive consultation with the membership, the ISSG with the IUCN’s Invasive Species Intitiative (ISI) developed and submitted a policy brief (www.issg.org/pdf/RioPolicybrief.pdf) related to biological invasions and invasive alien species to the IUCN.  This brief will be included in the IUCN documentation for Rio+20 and text will be reflected in the umbrella position paper (which will form the basis of IUCN’s statement to the Rio+20 conference).

More: www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/?9767/Biological-invasions-a-growing-threat-to-biodiversity

Inspiring Australia Working Group submissions

To advance the implementation of the ‘Inspiring Australia’ strategy, experts across Australia have been working together to develop recommendations for enhancing science engagement in areas that have required further analysis.  Four Expert Working Groups are now welcoming comment and feedback on their draft reports:

  •  Inspiration from the deserts
  •  Science engagement into and for Australia’s tropical region
  •  Indigenous Engagement with Science – Towards deeper understandings
  •  Effective communication of marine science to the Australian community

Each report has sought to analyse the current situation, identify the key stakeholders and issues, and propose a strategy to move forward.  The reports can be accessed at:
www.innovation.gov.au/Science/InspiringAustralia/ExpertWorkingGroup/Pages/default.aspx

The Invasive Animals CRC made a submission to the Inspiration from the deserts report citing www.feralscan.org.au as a tool to map feral animals to protect and enhance the biodiversity of Australian desert landscapes.

Feral animals are also covered in the Science engagement into and for Australia’s tropical region report.  The report states that the biodiversity sciences in tropical Australia are showing the emerging risk of a slowly unfolding extinction event across the tropical landscape, perpetrated by a complex interconnected set of landscape scale pressures (fire regimes, changing climate, feral animals and pest weeds and grazing pressures).

Any chance of halting this decline will require the engagement of national policy, funding and science institutions.  At this stage, despite the existence of a high level of knowledge of the problems and potential solutions, cohesive engagement between stakeholders and the science community has not yet emerged in a way that is likely to lead to a cohesive national or State/Territory action.

The contact for the Inspiration from the deserts report is Linda Cooper at Linda.Cooper@nintione.com.au and Allan Dale at allan.dale@jcu.edu.au is the contact for the Science engagement into and for Australia’s tropical region report.

Comment and feedback can be provided to the contacts for each Expert Working Group by 31 May 2012.  For further information, please email inspiring.australia@innovation.gov.au or phone (02) 6270 2868.

PhD in Invasive Species Ecology: Landcare Research NZ

Biological Invasions in Braided River Ecosystems in New Zealand
Landcare Research and The Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, New Zealand, with Environment Canterbury

An exciting opportunity exists to undertake a PhD aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of alien plant invasions in a highly dynamic ecosystem, the extensive braided rivers that are a major feature of New Zealand’s eastern South Island. Braided rivers are naturally dynamic systems as a consequence of highly variable river flows and associated floods, and support a unique native biota that includes endemic species of plants, lizards, invertebrates and river birds. Human induced changes to natural flood regimes, as a consequence of river damming and water extraction, appear to trigger a cascade of effects in these ecosystems initiated through invasion by alien plants.

More info: http://bioprotection.org.nz/vacancy/phd-invasive-species-ecology-0

New Publications

PestSmart Factsheet: Distribution of pure dingoes and dingo-dog hybrids in Australia
The term ‘wild dog’ collectively refers to pure dingoes, feral domestic dogs and hybrids between the two. In other words, all free-roaming Canis species are labelled and managed as wild dogs. Since domestic dogs arrived in Australia, interbreeding between dogs and dingoes has progressed rapidly. Understanding which areas have pure dingoes and which have hybrids is important for dingo conservation and for understanding the ecology of wild dogs in Australia’s ecosystems.
Download the full factsheet at: http://www.feral.org.au/dingo-purity-in-australia/

Journal Publications
Ford-Thompson, A. E. S., Snell, C., Saunders, G. and White, P. C. L. (2012), Stakeholder Participation in Management of Invasive Vertebrates. Conservation Biology 26: 345–356.

M. Noelia Barrios-Garcia and Sebastian A. Ballari (2012). Impact of wild boar (Sus scrofa) in its introduced and native range: a review. Biol Invasions  Online First™, 29 April 2012

G. J. Measey, D. Rödder, S. L. Green, R. Kobayashi and F. Lillo, et al (2012). Ongoing invasions of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis: a global review. Biol Invasions  Online First™, 29 April 2012

Media round-up

Weather leads to increase in feral rabbits. Consecutive warm and wet seasons have led to an increase in the feral rabbit population…….Mosman Council Read full story

Feral roadshow to make its Territory debut. When the Invasive Animals CRC announced the schedule for the PestSmart Roadshow in late 2011, there was some disappointment that the Northern Territory wasn’t included…..ABC Rural Read full story

Man’s pest friend: tracking wild dogs helps researchers fix costly problemIN A remote wilderness bordered by sheep country and plunging cliffs, big brother is watching the locals’ every move….Sydney Morning Herald Watch video and read full story

Wild dog baiting goes aerial. Helicopters will be flying low today over farms in southeast NSW as wild dog control takes to the sky……ABC Rural Read full story

Farmers under siege from wild dogs. The Victorian Government has been forced to abandon its wild dog aerial baiting program due to Federal Government belligerence, says the Victorian Farmers Federation….VFF Media Release Read full story

New dog bait almost ready. A NEW bait for wild dogs – with an antidote – could soon be available to farmers to use in the battle against wild dogs and foxes. …. North Queensland Register Read full story

Hunters hunted. PACKS of wild dogs are reportedly stalking deer hunters as they become more brazen in their search for food…..Pakenham-Berwick Gazette Read full story

Attack the pack. Tackling the problem of wild dogs needs a coordinated local approach and a wide range of weapons in producers’ arsenals…..MLA News Read full story

Wild dogs kill 17 lambs in one night. A WILD dog attack in East Gippsland on Saturday night left 17 lambs dead and sparked calls for more government trappers. ….The Weekly Times Read full story

PestSmart social media

Remember to follow PestSmart on social media. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2 PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Carp Management in Australia Forum. Melbourne 19-21 June
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 212 – 3 May 2012

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

 

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here.

Feral pigs in Australia videos

Pigs arrived in Australia with the First Fleet and today feral populations inhabit around 40% of Australia. Feral pigs cause agricultural damage through predation of newborn lambs, reduction in crop yields, damage to fences and water sources, and competition with stock for feed by consuming or damaging pasture. They also are considered a major threat to stock as a potential carrier of exotic diseases.

We have developed a series of videos that give a general introduction to the problem of feral pigs in Australia and discusses their impacts in marsh and rangeland country, particularly the Macquarie Marshes region of central NSW. They are available to watch on YouTube and have been popular.

PestSmart YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/PestSmart/

Feral Pigs in Australia Video playlist (YouTube)

86 years of photographic evidence of rangeland recovery from sheep and rabbit grazing

The longest photographic archive in Australia to record the recovery of a degraded rangeland (Koonamore – a sheep station in north-east South Australia) is now available online at:

The University of Adelaide started in 1926 researching the recovery of Koonamore, keeping a photographic record.  Digitisation of the Koonamore archives was an initiation of Dean Graetz (formerly CSIRO) and Russell Sinclair (University of Adelaide), with equipment assistance from the Pastoral Board of SA.

The Koonamore archive is valuable because it records the severe droughts of the 1930s, the arrival of Myxomatosis to combat rabbits in the 1950s and the 1973-74 extreme wet period.

For further information, please contact russell.sinclair@adelaide.edu.au  Story reprinted with permission from ‘Across the Outback’ published by SA Arid Lands NRM Board (jenny.barker@sa.gov.au) April 2012.

SA dingo update – SA Arid Lands NRM Board.

South of the Dog Fence, the Board is delivering the landholder-initiated Biteback program for protecting the region’s sheep industry.  A survey is currently being compiled by the Board to evaluate Biteback, particularly in terms of whether local area planning has changed the way participating landholders will work with their neighbours in coordinating future pest control.

North of the Dog Fence, the Board in investigating the impacts dingoes have on beef cattle in baited and unbaited areas to determine optimum dingo management strategies.  North of the fence, dingoes are neither specifically protected or declared as a pest, but are regarded as a legitimate wildlife species with a valuable ecological role. They are only baited at times necessary to provide temporary protection to calves when alternative prey species for dingoes are low due to seasonal conditions.

The Dingo Research project north of the fence is investigating the relationship between dingoes, 1080 baiting, calf predation /lactation failure and biodiversity.  Participating stations will maintain 1080 baited and unbaited paddocks to identify the proportion of calf losses attributable to dingoes, the environmental factors associated with increased calf predation and the ability of baiting to protect against predation. Contact the Dingo Management Team on (08) 86485300 for further information.

Story reproduced with permission from ‘Across the Outback’ published by SA Arid Lands NRM Board (jenny.barker@sa.gov.au) April 2012.

Australian Dingo: Invasive Pest or Predator, Kill or Conserve?

Julianne L. D’Amico (Department of Environmental Science, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania), the author of this paper had previously emailed the Invasive Animals CRC to obtain two recent dingo publications by our researchers.

Fleming, P., Allen, B., & Ballard, G. (2012). Seven consideration about dingoes as biodiversity engineers: the socioecological niches of dogs in Australia. Australian Mammalogy, 34(1): 119-131.

Allen, B. & Fleming, P. (2012) Reintroducing the dingo: The risk of dingo predation to threatened vertebrates of western New South Wales. Wildlife Research, 39(1): 35-50.

The paper also cited an Invasive Animals CRC publication:

Gong, W., Sinden, J., & Braysher, M. & Jones, R. (2009). The economic impacts of vertebrate pests in Australia. University of Canberra: Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre.

Feral Flyer readers may be interested to learn an American’s perspective on the Australian dingo.

Julianne writes that the Canis lupus dingo (pure dingo) has been plagued with debate since European arrival in Australia in 1788.  This debate, termed “dingo dualism”, questions the species’ status as either an invasive pest which terrorises introduced livestock or a native trophic predator responsible for keeping the population of invasive predator species at a minimum.

The species has been listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species.  Regardless of the species’ status as either an invasive pest or a native predator, an effective management plan must be established in order to eradicate or conserve the dingo.

In the final chapter, Julianne develops a list of criteria to evaluate three Acts of Parliament: the Wild Dog Destruction Act of NSW (1921), the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act (TPWCA) of Northern TerritoryT (2000), and the Nature Conservation Act of Queensland (1992).

Although the answer proves elusive to the question: Which State Act is an effective answer to managing the Australian dingo?  The author’s extensive bibliography and Appendices provide a comprehensive reference on the Australian dingo.

You may wish to contact the author at damicoj@allegheny.edu for a copy of her full paper.

Tilapia in Australia – State of Knowledge Forum

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority are pleased to announce a Forum on Tilapia in Australia to be held in Brisbane, Queensland, 15-16 May 2012.

Attendance at this workshop will be limited to 100 persons. Registrations can be made online:
http://tilapiaforum.eventbrite.com.au

The forum will focus on the present state of knowledge on Tilapia mariae (spotted tilapia or black mangrove cichlid) and Oreochromis mossambicus (Mozambique tilapia) in Australia and how this can be used to help manage the two species. Fisheries managers in particular are encouraged to attend.

Upcoming PestSmart Roadshow events

May and June brings Roadshow events in Townsville, Charleville and Bourke. We are also trying to lock in dates for Roadshow events in Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Watch this space or follow us on twitter or facebook for updates.

All events are free to attend but please see http://pestsmart.eventbrite.com.au/ for more information about each event and to register.

Date Event Location
Tuesday 15 May Tilapia in Australia Forum Brisbane
Tuedsay 5 June Charleville Roadshow Charleville RSL Club
Thursday 7 June Bourke Roadshow Diggers on the Darling
Tuesday 19 June Carp Management in Australia Forum Bell City Event Centre

 

Reminder: Invasive Animals PhD scholarships

A reminder that 19 PhD scholarships are being offered in innovative research projects covering ecology, virology, molecular biology, natural resource modelling, sociology, socio-economics and herbivore fertility control. The IA CRC links research with end‑users resulting in student research having a greater impact on the agricultural and environmental management sector.

Details of the IA CRC research projects, PhD scholarships and Balanced Researcher Program are available at http://www.invasiveanimals.com/phd-scholarship-applications/

Applications for study commencing in 2013 close on 17 August 2012. Some projects can start mid-2012 but these applications would have to be in by early May. See website for details.

Further enquiries to Dr Tony Buckmaster educationIACRC@canberra.edu.au

New PestSmart Publications

Russell DJ, Thuesen PA and Small FE (2010). Tilapia in Australia – Development of management strategies for the control and eradication of feral tilapia populations in Australia
This report presents a culmination of different research projects on two species of tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus and Tilapia mariae) and provides recommendations for the future management and research of these pest fish. Feral  populations of O. mossambicus and T. mariae are now widely distributed in tropical northeastern Queensland, with O. mossambicus also occurring in southeastern Queensland and river systems of Western Australia.  Download the full report at: http://www.feral.org.au/tilapia-in-australia/

Hutchison M, McLennan M, Chilcott K, Norris A and Stewart D (2012). Validating the age of carp from the northern Murray-Darling Basin
Being able to accurately age carp is important for modelling population dynamics and potential response to various control strategies. This study examined the use of oxytetracycline (OTC) and otolith (ear bone) sampling to determine the formation of bone growth rings and in turn estimate the age of carp populations in the northern Murray–Darling Basin (MDB). Download the full report at: http://www.feral.org.au/validating-the-age-of-carp/

New Journal Publications

Brian D. Cooke (2012). Rabbits: manageable environmental pests or participants in new Australian ecosystems? Wildlife Research (Online Early) – http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=WR11166

Benjamin L. Allen, Luke K.-P. Leung (2012). Assessing Predation Risk to Threatened Fauna from their Prevalence in Predator Scats: Dingoes and Rodents in Arid Australia. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36426 – http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036426

S. Campbell, S. Cook, L. Mortimer, G. Palmer, R. Sinclair and A. P. Woolnough (2012). To catch a starling: testing the effectiveness of different trap and lure types. Wildlife Research 39(3): 183-191 -  http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11115

Linda van Bommel and Chris N. Johnson (2012). Good dog! Using livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia’s extensive grazing systems. Wildlife Research 39(3): 220-229 – http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11135

Andrew J. Bengsen, John A. Butler and Pip Masters (2012). Applying home-range and landscape-use data to design effective feral-cat control programs. Wildlife Research 39(3): 258-265 – http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11097

Michael Bode, Karl E. C. Brennan, Keith Morris, Neil Burrows and Neville Hague (2012). Choosing cost-effective locations for conservation fences in the local landscape. Wildlife Research 39(3): 192-201 – http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11106

Media round-up

Wild dog attacks sheep near dog fence. A wild dog attacked and killed 20 sheep on a station near Broken Hill in Far West NSW at the weekend……SA Country Hour, ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/sa/content/2012/05/s3493850.htm

Army may be asked to help cull outback pests. A conservation group says it might be worth asking the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to help with feral animal control in Queensland’s outback……ABC Southern Queensland http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-02/army-may-be-asked-to-help-cull-outback-pests/3984430/?site=southqld&section=news

Feral pests taking toll on outback animals. Scientists working in the Simpson Desert in far west Queensland say an explosion in feral animal numbers is threatening native mammals…..ABC Western Queensland http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-01/feral-pests-taking-toll-on-outback-animals/3981908/?site=westqld

Farmers take stand against dogs.Prime 7 video clip…Prime 7http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/v1/video/-/watch/29106680/farmers-takes-stand-against-dogs/

Wild dog coordinator appointed to western Queensland. A coordinator has been appointed to help Queensland graziers north of the wild dog fence control the pest animal…..ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2012/s3490499.htm

Stop wild dogs or face the consequences: farmers. FARMERS in the Goodlands region north of Kalannie warn that if more isn’t done to solve wild dog problems in the area, the consequences could be dire….Farm Weekly http://fw.farmonline.com.au/news/state/livestock/sheep/stop-wild-dogs-or-face-the-consequences-farmers/2531596.aspx

Call to bring back 1080 poison to combat wild dog packs. The head of a national strategy to contain wild dogs says packs of the canines are threatening koalas…. ABC News, AM Programhttp://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3488393.htm?site=southeastsa

Victoria gives nod to ground-baiting. VICTORIA will push ahead with 1080 ground trials to control wild dogs as the Federal Government continues to block aerial baiting….Weekly Times http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/04/25/473941_politics-news.html

Poison restrictions hamper wild dog battle. The man charged with controlling the spread of wild dogs in Australia says restrictions on the use of a key poison are hampering the fight against growing numbers….ABC North and West SA http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-25/call-for-more-1080-to-kill-wild-dogs/3970890/?site=northandwest

Minister plans strategy to halt epidemic. THE State government is working on a new Draft Wild Dog Management Strategy, which it hopes will halt the wild dog epidemic….The Land http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/minister-plans-strategy-to-halt-epidemic/2534164.aspx

PestSmart social media

Remember to follow PestSmart on social media. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2 PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Collaborate | Innovate | 2012 National Wine Centre in Adelaide from 15-17 May
  • Tilapia in Australia – State of Knowledge Forum. Brisbane 15-16 May
  • Carp Management in Australia Forum. Melbourne 19-21 June
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

Posted in Feral Flyer | No Comments »

Feral Flyer issue 211 – 20 April 2012

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Welcome to issue 211 of Feral Flyer.

In this edition:

Send the Feral Flyer to your friends. They can subscribe directly by clicking here.

Invasive Animals PhD scholarship applications now open

Imagine working on your doctorate in the stimulating and supportive intellectual environment of a leading Australian university with four years’ funding support, compared to the usual three years. Your PhD research will work with cutting-edge technology and achieve practical solutions to a real $1 billion research problem. Invasive animals damage the Australian environment and reduce agricultural productivity.

19 PhDs are being offered in innovative research projects covering ecology, virology, molecular biology, natural resource modelling, sociology, socio-economics and herbivore fertility control. The IA CRC links research with end‑users resulting in student research having a greater impact on the agricultural and environmental management sector.  With industry support, IA CRC mentoring through the Balanced Researcher Program, and more skills training than their PhD peers, we expect our postgraduates to be highly competitive in the job market and to become the research leaders of the future.

These projects offer a choice of locations across Australia.  International students are encouraged to apply, however acceptance may depend on the policies regarding international students at the enrolling universities.

Details of the IA CRC research projects, PhD scholarships and Balanced Researcher Program are available at http://www.invasiveanimals.com/phd-scholarship-applications/

Applications for study commencing in 2013 close on 17 August 2012. Some projects can start mid-2012 but these applications would have to be in by early May. See website for details.

Further enquiries to Dr Tony Buckmaster educationIACRC@canberra.edu.au

Review of the Caring for our Country Initiative

cfocA high-level review has found that the Australian Government Caring for our Country Initiative is appropriate as national-scale natural resource management issues require a national perspective and commitment to address them effectively. Without duplicating the role of state and territory governments, the review found it is appropriate for the Australian Government to provide leadership and guidance on natural resource management and address priorities of national impact and requiring national coordination.

The review report (now available online) found Caring for our Country is making real progress towards an environment that is healthier, better protected, well managed, resilient and provides essential ecosystem services in a changing climate.

For further information on this report, please contact the Caring for our Country Review Team, Australian Government Land and Coasts, email: thereview@nrm.gov.au or phone 1800 552 008 (toll free). The 150 page report is available online at www.nrm.gov.au/about/caring/review/.

PestSmart gets social

Feral Flyer readers on social media can follow PestSmart. It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Invasive Animals CRC and with the latest additions to the toolkit as they become available. Share with your own followers and help spread the word on best practice invasive animal management.

google      PestSmart website: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart
facebook      PestSmart on facebook: www.facebook.com/PestSmart
twitter-2      PestSmart on twitter: twitter.com/PestSmartCRC
     PestSmart on YouTube: www.youtube.com/PestSmart

 




 



UC’s new Director of the Institute of Applied Ecology

The University of Canberra are delighted to announce that Professor David Choquenot has taken up the reins as UC’s new Director of the Institute for Applied Ecology.

Professor Choquenot comes to the IAE from New Zealand where he was General Manager, Biological Systems at Landcare Research and held an appointment as Professor of Ecology at the University of Auckland.

His research interests focus on vertebrates, particularly how trophic interactions between vertebrates and what they eat drives population dynamics and community structure. Most of his work in this area has been in the context of managing biodiversity and agricultural pests. He has a strong interest in empirical research and predictive modeling. David also has an impressive track record in the management of a large research organization, delivering quality research outcomes and linkages across sectors.

Professor Choquenot is an alumnus of the University of Canberra, completing a Master of Applied Science here before moving to the University of Sydney to complete his PhD.

Upcoming PestSmart Roadshow events
Bairnsdale Roadshow in Victoria on Tuesday this week.

The PestSmart Roadshow continues to roll on. Feedback from attendees so far has been overwhelmingly positive and some people are even planning their own mini-PestSmart info sessions for those in their region that couldn’t attend.

May and June brings Roadshow events in Townsville, Charleville and Bourke. Tilapia and Carp forums in Brisbane and Melbourne will also be held.

All events are free to attend but please see http://pestsmart.eventbrite.com.au/ for more information about each event and to register.

 

 

 

Date Event Location
Tuesday May 1 Townsville Roadshow Townsville RSL Club
Tuesday 15 May Tilapia in Australia Forum Brisbane
Tuedsay 5 June Charleville Roadshow Charleville RSL Club
Thursday 7 June Bourke Roadshow Diggers on the Darling
Tuesday 19 June Carp Management in Australia Forum Bell City Event Centre

 

 

30 April Deadline for Abstracts: 2012 World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling

This year the World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling is being staged by the Resource Modeling Association at the University of Queensland in Brisbane from 9-12 July. The conference theme is simply “Natural Resource Modeling” to celebrate the 25th year of the association’s journal.  The conference will be interdisciplinary with applied mathematics/statistics, economics, ecology, water, forestry and fisheries included.

The Call for Abstracts: http://www.edg.org.au/rma-talkproposals.html has been announced. Please complete the form at this www site to submit your proposal for a paper. Abstracts must be received by 30 April and applicants will be notified whether their paper was successful by 7 May 2012.

Further conference details are at http://www.edg.org.au/conference-details.html  People can also register their interest by emailing rma2012@resourcemodeling.org

2012 World Environment Day Awards

The annual national United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards program invites nominations from individuals, organisations, businesses, local councils, schools, journalists and community groups whose work serves to protect, manage or restore our natural heritage. Entry criteria and nomination forms for the 2012 World Environment Day Awards are online at: www.unaavictoria.org.au/awards-programs/world-environment-day-awards

One of the awards is the Biodiversity Award to the best company, organisation, community or individual that has demonstrated innovation and excellence in the development and management of Australia’s biodiversity. There is also the Individual Award that recognises the invaluable contribution individuals make to the environment through their involvement in a wide range of conservation projects.

The Sustainability Education Award is open to organisations, NGOs and education providers/institutions for best sustainability education project in the community which explores environmental themes or issues to help foster understanding about environmental issues at a grass roots level and make a constructive contribution through positive ideas and activities aimed at addressing these issues.

There are entry fees to nominate for the various awards. Please note that only electronic entries will be accepted in 2012. For further information, please email awards@unaavictoria.org.au or phone (03) 9670 7878.

New Publications

Steven J. Lapidge and Adam J. Munn (2012). Seasonal field metabolic rate and water influx of captive bred
reintroduced yellow-footed rock-wallabies (Petrogale xanthopus celeris).  Australian Journal of Zoology – http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ZO11049

New on feral.org.au - Humaneness assessments for feral pig control methods
The ‘humaneness’ of a pest animal control method refers to the overall welfare impact that the method has on an  individual animal. A relatively more humane method will have less impact than a relatively less humane method. Humaneness assessments for feral pig control methods are now online at www.feral.org.au/animal-welfare/humaneness-assessment/feral-pig/. Assessments for control methods for other species are also available. Assessments have been made based on Sharp and Saunders’ Model for assessing the relative humaneness of pest animal control methods developed under the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS).

Media round-up

Wild dog boom bites farmers hard. ON MORE than one occasion, mixed-enterprise grazier Graeme Brazel has been forced to head out in the dark of night to destroy ewes and lambs maimed by wild dogs…..The Land http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/wild-dog-boom-bites-farmers-hard/2526417.aspx

United front needed for dog control. Australia’s peak wild dog body claims not everyone is pulling their weight when it comes to control – and it’s pushing wild dogs further west…..The West Australian http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/countryman/a/-/news/13460720/united-front-needed-for-dog-control/

Farmers feeling feral pig costs. North Queensland cane growers say the damage caused by feral pigs is costing them thousands of dollars….ABC North Queensland http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-19/feral-pigs-costing-farmers-thousands/3960292/?site=northqld

Queensland pest research centre to stay open. Queensland’s new Agriculture minister says he’s halted plans to close a research centre in southern Queensland dedicated to pests and their control…ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2012/s3480236.htm

Western Plains Central West Rural Report, Wednesday, April 18, 2012. A new research project is examining the behaviour of wild dogs to gauge the most effective aerial baiting methods …ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/regions/content/201204/3479898.htm

Wild dogs trigger alarm. PACKS of wild dogs from inland Australia are threatening Victoria’s border areas in numbers not seen for half a century…The Weekly Times http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/04/18/470201_national-news.html

WA lobby calls for wild dog bounty. A LEADING farmer group in Western Australia has officially called a Victorian-style wild dog bounty to be funded by the Federal Government… The Weekly Times Now http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/04/17/470441_national-news.html

Wild dogs collared. GLEN Innes is now at the centre of one of the country’s largest wild dog research projects as scientists and local landholders work together to find the most effective rates for aerial baiting…Glen Innes Examiner  http://www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au/news/local/news/general/wild-dogs-collared/2523954.aspx

Sixty fox carcasses cause a stink. GUTTED and rotting fox carcasses on a Curlewis road have caused upset after allegedly being left hanging only metres from passing traffic for more than six months…News Geelong http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/04/17/320271_news.html

Country’s largest wild dog research project underway. he country’s largest wild dog research project is underway at Glen Innes in NSW, where scientists and local landholders are working together…Beef Central http://www.beefcentral.com/p/news/article/1510

Rural and Resources Report for Western Queensland, Monday 16th April 2012. The Australian Campdrafting Association National Titles ended on Saturday night with a dinner to celebrate 40 years since its inception….ABC Rural  http://www.abc.net.au/rural/regions/content/201204/3477840.htm

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Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Collaborate | Innovate | 2012 National Wine Centre in Adelaide from 15-17 May
  • Tilapia in Australia – State of Knowledge Forum. Brisbane 15-16 May
  • Carp Management in Australia Forum. Melbourne 19-21 June
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. Brisbane 9-12 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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Feral Flyer issue 210 – 5 April 2012

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

Welcome to issue 210 of Feral Flyer.

In this edition:

PestSmart YouTube Channel now online!

If you haven’t checked out the PestSmart YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/PestSmart) yet make sure you do! All the clips from our hugely popular Wild dog trapping and Best Practice management DVDs are there. New this week are three videos on the problem of feral pigs in Australia and their impacts in marsh and rangeland country, particularly the Macquarie Marshes region of central NSW.

First issue of NRM Notes for 2012 now available

‘NRM Notes’ is a newsletter dedicated to regional groups who work cooperatively to reduce the impacts of pest animals in their area. It’s full of good news and case studies that describe how groups are approaching pest management in their area.

This edition showcases the PestSmart Roadshows, feral pig control in Queensland, Hawkesbury-Nepean CMA pest projects for 2012, and cooperative feral pig management in the Staaten River catchment.
Past editions of NRM Notes can be downloaded from:
http://www.invasiveanimals.com/media-centre/newsletters/

Final islandNet newsletter online

The final islandNet newsletter is now available to read online at http://www.feral.org.au/islandnet/newsletter/. Featured in this issue:

  • Sea-level rises and beach nesting birds in Tasmania
  • Christmas Island rehabilitation program
  • Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program update
  • Rapid response to rat incursion on Mana Island, NZ

This project has now been completed, however resources remain online at http://www.feral.org.au/islandnet/.

Tilapia in Australia – State of Knowledge Forum

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority are pleased to announce a Forum on Tilapia in Australia to be held in Brisbane, Queensland, 15-16 May 2012.

Attendance at this workshop will be limited to 100 persons. Registrations can be made online:
http://tilapiaforum.eventbrite.com.au

The forum will focus on the present state of knowledge on Tilapia mariae (spotted tilapia or black mangrove cichlid) and Oreochromis mossambicus (Mozambique tilapia) in Australia and how this can be used to help manage the two species. Fisheries managers in particular are encouraged to attend.

PestSmart Roadshow Dates

RoadShow Dates
DATE PLACE VENUE

APRIL
Tuesday 17th Bairnsdale, Vic Bairnsdale RSL

MAY
Tuesday 1st Townsville, Qld Townsville RSL

JUNE
Tuesday 5th Charleville, Qld Charleville Memorial RSL Club
Thursday 7th Bourke Digger on the Darling (old Oxley RSL)
Remember to register

Register for any of these events by logging onto: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart/roadshow

New RIRDC pest and weeds risk assessment introduced

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has launched a new assessment framework that will play an important role in helping prevent the introduction and spread of new pests and weeds in Australia.

The assessment process will be used in all of RIRDC’s research projects that include prospective production plants and animals. The RIRDC publication ‘An invasive risk assessment framework for new animal and plant-based production industries’ can be downloaded from https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/11-141
RIRDC’s Managing Director, Craig Burns said the new RIRDC assessment protocols further support the national fight against pests and weeds and help to underpin the Australian Pest Animal Strategy and the Australian Weeds Strategy.

The new assessment process utilises the very latest science and information, including the costs of invasive animals to agriculture from the Invasive Animals CRC. The survey gratefully acknowledged advice and information provided by David Dall, John Thorp, Mary Bomford, Kim James and Daniel Keogh.
The study that led to the development of the new assessment process undertook a world-wide desktop survey to verify the relevance of existing protocols and the assessments made using them. In the case of potential pest animals, the study assembled and collated relevant information into an accessible database.

To contact the study’s researcher, email Dr Robert C Keogh at pachyrhizi@bigpond.com, phone (08) 9386 4410 or RIRDC at rirdc@rirdc.gov.au and (02) 6271 4100.

New wild dog PestSmart fact sheet

With a focus on laws and regulations in Australia relating to wild dogs, a new PestSmart fact sheet from the Invasive Animals CRC explains wild dog management legislation and policy often vary between jurisdictions at local and state levels, with overriding federal laws also affecting wild dog management.

The fact sheet details the following types of regulations that should be considered before beginning any wild dog management activity:

• Legal obligations on owners of land where wild dogs occur
The responsibility to manage wild dogs rests largely with the owners or managers of the land where wild dogs occur. In places where wild dogs are considered pests, landowners have a responsibility to control wild dogs on their land and prevent them from causing problems on neighbouring lands.
• Laws relating to animal welfare
People managing wild dogs are obligated to use control methods that minimise any potential pain, fear or distress. Codes of practice, standard operating procedures and best-practice guidelines for the management of wild dogs have been developed, are publically available and should be followed in order to prevent cruelty to animals during control operations.
• Laws relating to land tenure
In many cases, wild dogs are a ‘protected species’ in national parks and conservation reserves while they are considered ‘declared pests’ in many livestock production areas.
• Laws relating to the conservation status of specific wild dog populations
Controlling all wild dogs may be allowed along the boundaries of some conservation reserves, while core areas within a reserve may be set aside for wild dog conservation. An isolated island population (such as dingoes on Fraser Island) might be considered a unique natural asset worthy of conservation. Alternatively, people might want to only conserve pure dingoes but eliminate impure hybrids and feral dogs.
• Laws relating to the use of specific control techniques
There is specific legislation dealing with the use of firearms, which are often used to euthanise wild dogs in trapping or shooting programs. Various laws also govern the use of poisons and other veterinary drugs used to kill or safely handle wild dogs. Many of these chemicals have label instructions and directions for use that are legally binding.
• Laws relating to the use of animals for research and teaching
Some wild dog management activities might be considered ‘research and teaching activities’ in some jurisdictions, such as the systematic use of infra-red trail cameras or attaching tracking collars to wild dogs. If this is the case, various additional permits and approvals may be required before management activities can begin.
• Laws relating to the keeping, sale, and movement of wild dogs
Different states and territories may or may not allow the keeping of wild dogs as pets. A permit may be required to do so. Wild dogs may be seized and euthanised if they are being kept illegally.
• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
All new wild dog control programs must be reviewed under the EPBC Act before they are put in place, to assess the program’s risk to threatened species in the area.

Wild dogs are identified by the national Vertebrate Pests Committee as a ‘Category 5 / Extreme’ species. Category 5 means that the animal is a recognised pest that is both widespread and established, while an Extreme classification indicates that such animals should not be allowed to enter, nor be kept in any state or territory without permission. Wild dogs are also identified as a pest animal under the Australian Pest Animal Strategy.

Greater level of detail can also be found in state and local wild dog management plans, which can be accessed at www.feral.org.au. The fact sheet can be downloaded from www.feral.org.au/wild-dog-policy-and-legislation

ECOS e-magazine: Carp herpesvirus could stem the tide

Credit: G. Heath/scienceimage

Special feature commissioned by the Invasive Animals CRC

While two years of flooding rains have brought our river systems back to life, populations of carp – previously held in check by the drought – have exploded.

This will likely have dire consequences for our waterways and native wildlife. A recently identified biological control agent Koi herpesvirus (KHV) may one day keep carp numbers in check.

Recreational fishers welcome the prospect.

“We are cautiously optimistic about KHV and would certainly like to think that this is a solution to the problem of exploding carp numbers in the Murray-Darling Basin area”, says Christopher Collins, Executive Office of the Victorian Recreational Fishing Peak Body.

Victorian trout angler, Mr Hall, would like to see the tests and approvals expedited so that the virus could be released earlier. He has been seeing carp moving steadily upriver towards Lake Eildon.
‘We need to act quickly, or we will have another environmental disaster on our hands,’ he warns.

http://www.ecosmagazine.com/paper/EC12230.htm

Publications

Banks, Peter B., and Hughes, Nelika K. (2012) A review of the evidence for potential impacts of black rats (Rattus rattus) on wildlife and humans in Australia. Wildlife Research 39, 78–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11086 http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR11086

Susan A. Mainka and Geoffrey W. Howard (2010) Climate change and invasive species: double jeopardy. INTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2010, Pages: 102–111, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-4877.2010.00193.x/abstract

Burgiel, S.W. and A.A. Muir. (2010). Invasive Species, Climate Change and Ecosystem- Based Adaptation: Addressing Multiple Drivers of Global Change. Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP), Washington, DC, US, and Nairobi, Kenya.  http://www.gisp.org/whatsnew/docs/Climate_Change_ReportA4.pdf

PestSmart Publications

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre Community Awareness Survey (CAS) has pioneered a new technique in opinion research called ‘Reading the Public Mind’ (RtPM). http://www.feral.org.au/community-awareness-survey/

PestSmart Factsheet: Have you got wild dogs? Fact sheet on detecting the presence of wild dogs. http://www.feral.org.au/have-you-got-wild-dogs/

PestSmart Factsheet: Wild dog policy and legislation considerations. Fact sheet on laws and regulations in Australia relating wild dogs. http://www.feral.org.au/wild-dog-policy-and-legislation/

PestSmart Factsheet: Tools and strategies for wild dog management. Fact sheet on methods and strategies for wild dog control. http://www.feral.org.au/tools-and-strategies-for-wild-dog-management/

Paroo Model of Wild Dog Control. Describes the successful wild dog management program developed and implemented in the Paroo Shire in Queensland. http://www.feral.org.au/paroo-model-of-wild-dog-control/

Media

Where has the money gone? A decision by authorities to cease aerial dog baiting has left local landholders annoyed and fearing the worst…The Scone Advocate  http://www.sconeadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/where-has-the-money-gone/2505208.aspx

Why the invaders are winning: Australia’s vital scientific warfare against alien vegetation is being hamstrung by government inaction, and it’s our grandchildren who will pay the price…Canberra Times http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/why-the-invaders-are-winning-20120328-1vyg1.html#ixzz1r1yJjqN2

Selection begins for new rabbit control agent: NSW scientists have been screening more than 100 overseas strains of the rabbit calicivirus also known as Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV) – in a bid to come up with a new, more effective rabbit biological control for Australian conditions…NSW DPI http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/recent-news/agriculture-news-releases/new-rabbit-control-agent

Dogged approach required: Our neighbour lost 14 sheep in that time – he has the luxury of being able to bring his flock in close to his house. I don’t…Weekly Times Now http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/04/04/465161_opinion-news.html

Rural and Resources Report for North West and Western Queensland, Monday 2nd April 2012: Wild dogs forcing sheep producers to quit, Council unsure whether Cloncurry solar project will go ahead, Increase in national livestock yardings…ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/regions/content/201204/3468605.htm

Wild dogs still a real threat: THE Hume Livestock Health and Pest Authority is urging landholders to be vigilant with reports on wild dog sightings to assist in curbing their impact…The Border Mail http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/local/news/general/wild-dogs-still-a-real-threat/2507148.aspx

Pet dogs attacking livestock in Delegate: FOLLOWING reports of dogs roaming on rural properties within the South East Livestock Health and Pest Authority, domestic dog owners are being reminded to supervise their dogs at all times to avoid unintentional attacks on livestock…Bombala Times http://www.bombalatimes.com.au/news/local/news/rural/pet-dogs-attacking-livestock-in-delegate/2504226.aspx

New control option on way: THE development of new toxins and toxin-delivery devices plus the increasing use of livestock guardian dogs for flock protection, are part of the fight against wild dogs…Stock Journal http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/livestock/news/new-control-option-on-way/2498969.aspx

Landholders urged: ‘unite to tackle pigs’: LANDHOLDERS need to work together to help tackle feral pig problems, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) says…North Queensland Register http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/landholders-urged-unite-to-tackle-pigs/2497356.aspx

Upcoming Conferences

2012

  • Tilapia in Australia – State of Knowledge Forum. Brisbane, Queensland, 15-16 May 2012.
  • Collaborate | Innovate | 2012 National Wine Centre in Adelaide from 15-17 May 2012.
  • Wildlife Tourism Australia’s 3rd National Workshop: ‘USING WILDLIFE FOR TOURISM’ Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Gold Coast Qld Wednesday – Friday 16-18th May 2012
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July 2012
  • Queensland Pest Animal Symposium. Caloundra. 30 July – 2 August 2012
  • Recreational Fishing Conference. Gold Coast. 17-19 August 2012
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 August-1 September 2012
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 August-1 September 2012

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

Posted in Feral Flyer | No Comments »

Feral Flyer issue 209 – 22 March 2012

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

Welcome to issue 209 of Feral Flyer.

In this edition:

 

First meeting of extension Invasive Animals CRC Participants

The Participants of the new extension Invasive Animals CRC (IA CRC) have met to progress the legal and commercial documentation to ensure the new IA CRC hits the road with a five-year research program “ready to accelerate from the starting blocks”, with no time to waste from 1 July 2012 through to 2017.

Chaired by Jim Thompson, Chief Biosecurity Officer with Biosecurity Queensland, the meeting of Participants heard that each successive IA CRC built on the achievements of the CRC before and that the new IA CRC had a solid foundation.

Jim Thompson (Chief Biosecurity Officer with Biosecurity Queensland) & Helen Cathles (IA CRC Chair)

Helen Cathles, Chair of the Invasive Animals CRC, said that the IA CRC consisted of a well-integrated team and welcomed the new Participants aboard. Helen described the IA CRC as a “PestSmart Powerhouse” and the best of the current CRC was being brought forward into the new extension CRC.

“The doors of the IA CRC are always open to participants for ongoing conversations,” Helen said. “Our Centre is end-user driven and focused on developing new technologies which has proven a magnet for international collaboration with Participants from New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States”.

Andreas Glanznig – IA CRC CEO said that the business case for the new CRC was a strong one. In addition to our commercial program, there is a strong public good component to our future research program and community engagement is a critically-important new research platform for the extension IA CRC.”

Some of the highlights discussed by Participants included:

* end-users involved in regular research reviews to ensure research “hits the mark”

* the IA CRC’s role to build community leadership capacity

* more than 30 research projects ready to start from 1 July 2012

* more than 15 PhDs under the Balance Researcher extended four-year initiative, embedded in the research program to build research capacity

* enhanced role of Participants as members of the Research Program Advisory Panel to add strategic input to the research mix of the IA CRC

* integrated strategic and operational plans (with milestones articulated from project plans) for the new IA CRC, underpinned by a Strategic Evaluation & reporting framework

* whole-of-CRC research reviews scheduled for 2015 and 2017

* the re-insertion of a Commercialisation and Utilisation plan in the Participants Agreement

* better use of the Participants Committee role to act as an advisory committee to the Governing Board of the IA CRC.

Questions from the floor in a “balanced” approach to discussing the new extension IA CRC.

One of the Participants at the meeting, Mr Cameron Begley – General Manager, Business Development and Commercialisation at CSIRO, said that all Participants had demonstrated a “balanced” approach to discussing all of the issues involved in establishing the new extension IA CRC.

In closing the Participants Committee Meeting, Helen Cathles asked Participants to picture why the IA CRC matters. “Imagine a paddock today in 2012 impacted by invasive animals. Then imagine that paddock in 2017 if nothing is done to improve control measures against invasive animals. That is why the new IA CRC matters.”

Participants were then invited to come back to Canberra on 15 October 2012 for the celebration of the IA CRC just finished plus the official launch of the new extension IA CRC, which would be followed by the next Participants Committee meeting and the AGM on 16 October 2012.

Some of our Participants
Linton Staples (Animal Control Technologies Pty Ltd)  and Annabelle Duncan (University of New England)
 Phil Cassey (University of Adelaide) and Andrea Byrom (Landcare Research New Zealand)

Pest management training being developed

Mike Braysher from the Invasive Animals CRC said that the recent boost to technical training announced by the Prime Minister may assist in providing resources for upskilling pest animal managers.

The Prime Minister has announced an additional $7.2 billion in funding for the vocational education and training (VET) sector over the next five years to upskill Australians and ensure ‘jobs for the future’.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement which NFF President Jock Laurie said comes at a time when the agricultural sector is facing a serious skills and labour shortage.

Mike Braysher said that the lack of suitably qualified pest managers is now the most serious impediment to effectively reducing the hundreds of millions in damage caused by pests.

“Before the 21st century, most pest animal management was focused on the biology of pests and how best to kill them, and if possible eradicate them,” he said. “The focus now is on the outcome, reducing damage caused by pests”.

In 2007, this approach was endorsed in the Australian Pest Animal Strategy. Up until now, there has been little attention to incorporating this approach in pest animal Vocational Education and Training courses, said Mike.

To help address this deficiency, the Invasive Animals CRC in cooperation with Agrifood Skills Australia, Vertebrate Pests Committee and NSW DPI are cooperating to review current pest management competencies and develop revised training packages based on the Australian Pest Animal Strategy.

Mike said that once developed, the challenge will be to train pest managers under the new training packages.

For further information, please contact Mike on (02) 62608112 or mike.braysher@canberra.edu.au

Nominations open for the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science

Do you know early/mid-career scientists who merit national recognition?

Please help identify potential candidates for the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.  Each prize has a significant personal cash component.  The closing date is 27 April.

The main prize – the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science – is worth $300,000.

There are also two awards for early- to mid-career scientists, both worth $50,000:

  • Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
  • Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.

Nomination forms and more details at: the PM’s Prizes website.

Detection and Prevention loses Wendy Henderson

Dr Wendy Henderson will be leaving the IA CRC on March 22 after almost six years as Program Coordinator and Project Leader for the Detection & Prevention Program.

She will be working at ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research). Wendy wishes everyone all the best with finalising their current projects with the IA CRC, and/or on their new ventures with the IA CRC’s extension.

The IA CRC will miss a very valuable member and we all wish her the very best for the future.

Pest Animals Twitter on #Agchatoz

Keryn Lapidge (@PestSmartCRC) and Glenn Conroy (@Glennconroy1) from the Invasive Animals CRC recently participated in a late night AgChatOZ Twitter discussion on pest animals.

AgChatOZ is on every Tuesday night from 8pm and anyone interested in Australian Agriculture is welcome to join in.

Tony Peacock (@crcassoc) from the CRC Association said that Agchatoz Cofounders, Sam Livingstone, Danica Leys and Tom Whitty are having a big impact on the public conversations that are taking place on the wide range of issues facing agriculture in Australia. Danica recently won the NSW Rural Women’s Award.

Glenn Conroy said that using Twitter is an addictive process that was most useful in keeping your finger on the “pulse” of people interested in common issues, in this case the control of invasive animals.

There were 89 participants with 682 tweets about pest animals/weeds/diseases during #AgChatOZ.

They were in regions including East Gippsland, the Mallee and the Wimmera in Victoria, Geraldton and the Kimberley in WA, Katherine in the NT, Adelaide, rural NSW including the Hunter Valley, Bathurst, Armidale, Yass and the Liverpool Plains, far North Queensland, Burdekin in central Queensland and Longreach in western Queensland, people waiting at airports and all points north, south, east and west.

In a wide-ranging discussion over two hours, some of the topics raised included:

* feral pig control using HogHopper™ baiting station and the toxins available now and in the future. Baiting stations and specialised bait matrix/formulations together help ensure risk to native animals is minimised.

* Sodium nitrite pig bait HOGGONE® to be submitted for registration to APVMA

*wild dogs and foxes (mentioning the free wild dog trapping DVD available from Invasive Animals CRC)

* rabbits (lots of them), feral goats and donkeys

* pest animals not recognising property boundaries and council coordination of neighbouring baiting programs

* pest animals in national parks and difficulty with pest management is it requires private & public land holders to cooperate which means layers of government “difficult”

* dingoes controlling foxes (and evidence to the contrary from the Invasive Animals CRC)

* guardian animals (not only dogs) to protect livestock (with reference to Best Practice Manual for the use of Livestock Guardian Dogs available through the Invasive Animals CRC)

* using grazing for woody weeds and lead for rabbits

* kangaroo and wallaby control, with reference to GonaCon® research vaccination on the fertility of macropods

* licensed sporting shooter control of pest animals

* PestSmart Roadshows completed and coming up (Bairnsdale in East Gippsland, Victoria on 17 April)

* references to information available from the PestSmart website and also the email for Invasive Animals CRC contact@invasiveanimals.com

* even farmers offering to help in research field trails

* a lot of subjects in between like invasive weeds, bees, wombats and eating kangaroos.

People can follow us on Twitter at #PestSmartCRC, #Glennconroy1, #crcassoc and #Agchatoz. For further information about Agchatoz, email Sam Livingstone and Tom Whitty at email agchatoz@gmail.com

Imagine if you could get 10,000 people to help you with your research!

ABC Science Online is looking for innovative scientists to be partners in three online citizen science projects.  If you have a research idea that could benefit from accessing thousands of people, then the ABC would love to hear from you.

It is looking for a scientific research project that will:

  • appeal to lots of people
  • involve an experiment/ survey/ test that can be done online.
  • be open to people living all across Australia, regardless of location
  • be a valid scientific research project, associated with an Australian university or research organisation, with the aim to publish some results in a peer-reviewed journal or equivalent.

ABC Science will:

  • develop and run the online platform for the research project
  • promote the project.

You will be responsible for:

  • the science behind the research project
  • analysing the data collected
  • assisting in promoting the project (doing media interviews).

The period that the project is open for data collection will be from three weeks to two months, but will always include National Science Week in August 2012.  ABC Science will run one citizen science project each year for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Please email ABC Science at science@your.abc.net.au to register your interest, covering the following details:

  • your name, position and institution
  • your experience and areas of scientific interest
  • your proposed project – a brief synopsis of the idea including why this research is interesting and /or important; the questions it hopes to answer and how you imagine the ‘citizen scientists’ might be involved in providing data for your research.

For further information, contact Kylie Andrews, Producer at ABC Science Online, on kylie.andrews@abc.net.au or phone 02 8333 2473 – Monday to Wednesday only.

Women in Science Fellowships open 1 April

This year L’Oréal is making some changes to its ‘For Women in Science’ Fellowships.

Nominations are now open to women researchers from New Zealand and the prize value has been increased to $25,000.

Nominations will open on Sunday 1 April and run until Tuesday 1 May.

The L’Oréal Fellowships are awarded to three female scientists with no more than five years of post-doctoral experience to assist their research at an Australian or New Zealand academic or research institution.

The Fellowships are worth up to AUD$25,000 over 12 months.

For more information, and for application forms (when they become available in April), please visit the L’Oréal ‘For Women in Science’ website.

PestSmart Roadshow Dates

RoadShow Dates
DATE PLACE VENUE

APRIL
Tuesday 17th Bairnsdale, Vic Bairnsdale RSL

MAY
Tuesday 1st Townsville, Qld Townsville RSL
Thursday-Saturday 3-5 May Carrick, Tasmania Agfest Field Days

JUNE
Tuesday 5th Charleville, Qld Charleville Memorial RSL Club
Thursday 7th Bourke Digger on the Darling (old Oxley RSL)
Remember to register

Register for any of these events by logging onto: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart/roadshow

New Publications

DJ Russell,  PA Thuesen and FE Thomson (2012). A review of the biology, distribution and control of Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters 1852) (Pisces: Cichlidae) with particular emphasis on feral Australia populations. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. Online First™, 17 January 2012  DOI: 10.1007/s11160-011-9249-z

PestSmart Publications

Media round-up

Giddings backs fox force.  PREMIER Lara Giddings says she has faith in expert advice that foxes are living in Tasmania…The Mercury http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/03/21/311251_tasmania-news.html

The Tasmanian Fox Eradication Program says it has new evidence of foxes in the north west of the state. It says testing by the University of Canberra has found fox DNA in scats found near Railton and Burnie last year…ABC News http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-14/20120314-new-fox-evidence-found/3888858

Scats on Coast test positive for fox DNA. FOX scats collected from Burnie and Railton last year have been positively identified by the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology as containing fox DNA…The Advocate http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/scats-on-coast-test-positive-for-fox-dna/2487348.aspx

Cats added to fox force list. THE State Government, the Opposition and the Greens have each taken credit for the idea of combining the Fox Taskforce into a new agency that will take on invasive animals and weeds…The Mercury http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/03/18/310461_tasmania-news.html

Controlling rabbits: let’s not get addicted to viral solutions. Brian Cooke manages and advises on rabbit control research and is financially supported in a part-time capacity by the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, University of Canberra… The Conversation http://theconversation.edu.au/controlling-rabbits-lets-not-get-addicted-to-viral-solutions-5701

Biological warfare declared on rabbits. A NEW biological attack on Australia’s exploding rabbit population could begin by 2015…Weekly Times Now http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/03/17/457205_latest-news.html

Council issues warning amid wild dog attacks. Dog owners are being urged to keep control of their animals after a spate of recent wild dog attacks across Townsville in north Queensland…ABC North Queensland http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-19/council-issues-warning-amid-wild-dog-attacks/3898140/?site=northqld

Victorian wild dog aerial baiting delayed. A stalemate between the Victorian and Federal Governments has put a plan to aerial bait for wild dogs in Victoria on hold…ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201203/s3460146.htm

Have your say on wildlife corridors. THE National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) is calling on farmers and rural landholders to contribute to the consultation phase of the Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan…Farm Weekly http://fw.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/have-your-say-on-wildlife-corridors/2483051.aspx

Inaugural Northern Territory Ranger Awards. Minister for Parks and Wildlife, Karl Hampton, said the Northern Territory Ranger Awards program is a first for the Territory, and a great opportunity to acknowledge the amazing work our Rangers do…Northern Territory Government http://www.newsroom.nt.gov.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewRelease&id=9204&d=5

Sheep still dogged by ferals.WYANDRA grazier Peter Lucas is passionate about keeping wild dogs under control. He has seen the destruction…Queensland Country Life http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/news/state/livestock/sheep/sheep-still-dogged-by-ferals/2481880.aspx

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Upcoming conferences

2012

  • Collaborate | Innovate | 2012 National Wine Centre in Adelaide from 15-17 May
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July
  • Invertebrates associated with invasive alien organisms. Riga (Latvia) 16–18 August
  • Invasive organisms and globalisation. Riga (Latvia) 20-23 August
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 Aug-1 Sept
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 Aug-1 Sept

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

Posted in Feral Flyer | 1 Comment »

Feral Flyer issue 208 – 8 March 2012

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Welcome to issue 208 of Feral Flyer.

In this edition:

PestSmart Roadshow Dates

RoadShow Dates
DATE PLACE VENUE

MARCH
Friday 16th Toowoomba, Qld Highfields Cultural Centre
Tuesday 20th Armidale, NSW Armidale Ex‐Services Club

APRIL
Tuedsay 17th Bairnsdale, Vic Bairnsdale RSL

MAY
Tuesday 1st Townsville, Qld Townsville RSL
Thursday-Saturday 3-5 May Carrick, Tasmania Agfest Field Days

JUNE
Tuesday 5th Charleville, Qld Charleville Memorial RSL Club
Thursday 7th Bourke Digger on the Darling (old Oxley RSL)
Remember to register

Register for any of these events by logging onto: www.feral.org.au/pestsmart/roadshow

PestSmart YouTube Channel now online!

PestSmart now has its own YouTube channel! This is where you can watch video clips from our best practice DVDs. So far most of the clips from the very popular Introduction to using foot hold traps for the capture of wild dogs and foxes DVD have been uploaded. Clips from our Guide to practical pest animal management DVD and other audio-visual material will also be available soon. Clips can all be viewed separately but are also arranged in playlists by region or related information and these can be played together. Stay tuned to Feral Flyer or the PestSmart Facebook page for updates or subscribe to the feed now!

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/PestSmart/

Decision Support Tool for the Management of Freshwater Fish Incursions

An interactive online tool is now available to lodge reports of freshwater fish incursions. Designed by the Arthur Rylah Institute at Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, this tool aims to assist managers maximize the speed of response to an incursion once this has been confirmed, by enabling logical consideration of all management options. Create reports with sighting, fish, and location details. Once submitted the report is forwarded to the relevant state authority for follow up. This tool will serve as an important step in the detection and rapid response to new incursions of invasive fish in Australian waterways.

LINK: http://www.feral.org.au/dss/

Australian Museum Eureka Prizes entries close 4 May

Isn’t it time your research was rewarded? This is the question posed by the 2012 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes which is Australia’s premier science awards program. The winner of the 2011 Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research with research to ‘Hit Cane Toad Myths on the Head’ was Professor Rick Shine who is Australia’s leading researcher into controls against the cane toad. Professor Rick Shine’s spirited and informed communication style is ensuring a more balanced discussion.

Professor Shine has substantially shifted the cane-toad debate. There is now broad community consensus about several issues – for example, that toad invasion affects only a small proportion of native species; that physical removal of toads can be a stop-gap measure at best; and that long-term toad control is most likely to emerge from a detailed understanding of the biology of cane toads, not from simply going out and hitting toads on the head.

Perhaps the most clear-cut evidence of Professor Shine’s campaign comes from broad community acceptance of the Federal Government’s Threat Abatement Plan, which draws heavily on his work, and runs counter to many long-enshrined myths about toads.

In 2006, he won the Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research in recognition of his pioneering work on ecology, evolution and conservation of Australian reptiles. He says “Winning a Eureka Prize was almost as much fun as catching king brown snakes!”

Entries for the Eureka Prizes which reward excellence in the fields of research & innovation, leadership & commercialisation, school science and science journalism & communication close on midnight 4 May 2012. Entry is by online form so go to http://eureka.australianmuseum.net.au/enter where the prizes are listed. You click on the Eureka Prize you wish to enter, then click on Online Entry Form under the sponsor’s logo on the right.

The online forms may vary from prize to prize but generally ask:

Short entry title
50-word entry summary
Contacts for up to six researchers (on a multi-disciplinary team for example)
Contacts for assessors (up to four assessors)
Upload supporting documents
Conditions of entry
Entry questionnaire
Confirm and submit entry

The Eureka Prizes are a unique partnership between the Australian Museum and external sponsors and supporters. Among the lineup this year is:

Research & Innovation

Environmental Research, sponsored by NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Outstanding Young Researcher, sponsored by Macquarie University
Scientific Research, sponsored by University of New South Wales
Scientific Research that Contributes to Animal Protection, sponsored by Voiceless
Commercialisation of Innovation, sponsored by Rio Tinto
Emerging Leader in Science, sponsored by 3M
Leadership in Science, sponsored by CSIRO
Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers, sponsored by University of Technology, Sydney
Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research, sponsored by Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
Science Journalism, sponsored by Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
Science Photography, sponsored by New Scientist

Leadership & Commercialisation

  • Commercialisation of Innovation, sponsored by Rio Tinto
  • Emerging Leader in Science, sponsored by 3M
  • Leadership in Science, sponsored by CSIRO
  • Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers, sponsored by University of Technology, Sydney

Science Communication & Journalism

  • Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research, sponsored by Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
  • Science Journalism, sponsored by Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
  • Science Photography, sponsored by New Scientist

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes judges are expert representatives from a variety of disciplines and work in universities, schools, media, research institutes, industry, science centres and government departments. Collectively, they are the ‘Who’s Who’ of Australian science, science communication and education. Here’s a list of what they are looking for in a winning entry.

  • Think clearly about which prize is most appropriate for your work.
  • Before you apply, ask yourself is your work timely, novel and paradigm shifting.
  • Assessor reports are critical for success so organise them first.
  • Select your assessors carefully and use people of recognised standing.
  • Talk with your assessors and encourage them to interpret the judging criteria in their two-page report.
  • Take careful note of the judging criteria and align your submission to these criteria.
  • Keep your reports brief, explicit and focused on the judging criteria.
  • Ask a critical friend or colleague to review your application.
  • Avoid hype. The judges not only see through it, some dislike it.
  • Be concise. We realise you have a lot you want to say, however work out which of the detail is essential and think carefully about including the rest.
  • Communicate as though your audience are not experts in your field.
  • Avoid jargon, acronyms and abbreviations. Don’t assume judges will know what they mean.

These are all good tips when entering any competition evaluating your science research. For further information on the Eureka Prizes and entry for 2012 phone (02) 9320 6483 or email eureka@austmus.gov.au

2012-13 Community Action Grants – Now Open:

The 2012-13 round of Community Action Grants (CAGS’s) is now open! Grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 (GST exclusive) are available for environmental, Indigenous, Landcare and Coastcare groups and the sustainable agriculture community to take action to help protect and conserve Australia’s natural resources and environment. Note that applications this year are particularly encouraged from groups with projects that will build community skills and raise awareness as well as on-ground projects. Applications from non-incorporated local groups can be hosted by incorporated organisations such as industry bodies or regional NRM groups/CMAs.

Hurry! Applications close 27 March 2012. For more information please go to www.nrm.gov.au or call 1800 552 008.

We can help you:
If you are applying for funding to manage pest animals or to run pest animal-related education or community projects, we can help! Contact Jessica Marsh – email: jessica.marsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au or phone: 0400 586 060. Or email: annette.brown@dpi.nsw.gov.au Alternatively, you can contact the Australian Government NRM officer in your state or your Regional Landcare Facilitator – further details are available at  http://www.nrm.gov.au/contact/officers.html.

Here are some grant-writing resources that you may find helpful:
http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/index.cgi?ID=69&TYPE=num&PG=1&RES=10&SORTBY=1
http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/boards/boards_article.jsp?articleId=2626
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-write-an-application-that-wins-grants.html

Tell us about it:
If you have received CAG funding for pest animal projects in the past, please feel free to share your experience with us and we can include it in our March edition of NRM Notes.

Publications

Banks, Peter B., and Hughes, Nelika K. (2012) A review of the evidence for potential impacts of black rats (Rattus rattus) on wildlife and humans in Australia. Wildlife Research 39, 78–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WR11086 http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR11086

PestSmart Publications

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre Community Awareness Survey (CAS) has pioneered a new technique in opinion research called ‘Reading the Public Mind’ (RtPM). http://www.feral.org.au/community-awareness-survey/

Media

Biosecurity threats of vertebrate pests in Australia: A new study finds that exotic pets and stowaway animals present some of the highest risks for the introduction and establishment of new invasive animals in Australia…Science Alert http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20122702-23164-2.html

The $50 Million Fox Hunt: Nick Mooney, who is the longtime public interlocutor for Tasmania’s Fox Eradication Program (FEP), believes that if foxes establish in Tasmania, it will be the worst thing to happen here ecologically “since the ice age.”…Tasmanian Times http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/the-50-million-fox-hunt/

Wild dog threat on our doorstep: An increasing number of sightings of wild dogs in the Armidale region was a high priority at last week’s meeting of the Armidale branch of NSW Farmers… Armidale Express http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/news/local/news/general/wild-dog-threat-on-our-doorstep/2471619.aspx

Farmers take aim at fox numbers: Organisers of a feral animal shoot held over the weekend say the cull was very successful… ABC South West WA http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-29/farmers-take-aim-at-fox-numbers/3859858/?site=southwestwa&section=news

Army of volunteers enlists in a fight to save the farm. THE hunter is conflicted, Edward Hoogenboom says. The adrenalin rush that comes with a kill is quickly followed by ”the hunter’s lament”…Canberra Times http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/conservation/army-of-volunteers-enlists-in-a-fight-to-save-the-farm-20120302-1u88z.html#ixzz1oTZyuBdF

Expansion causes urban fox invasion  FOXES in urban areas around Orange are on the increase because of housing developments creeping into agricultural land, according to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI)… Central Western Daily http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/news/local/news/general/expansion-causes-urban-fox-invasion/2476095.aspx

Red tape makes it difficult to bait foxes. DIFFICULTY obtaining 1080 bait is deterring owners of small acreage from fox baiting…Central Western Daily  http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/news/local/news/general/red-tape-makes-it-difficult-to-bait-foxes/2476092.aspx

Close eye on mice. MICE numbers are down across south-eastern Australia, but farmers are still casting an uneasy eye on populations, wary of another situation like 2011, where the plague caught many unawares…Stock Journal  http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/grains-and-cropping/general/close-eye-on-mice/2473635.aspx

MICE numbers are down but lessons can be learnt from 2011 plague. Following the plague of 2011, mice numbers are now down across the high-risk areas of South Eastern Australia… Fat Cow http://www.fatcow.com.au/c/Animal-Control-Technologies/MICE-numbers-are-down-but-lessons-can-be-learnt-from-2011-plague-n914762

Controlling rabbits: let’s not get addicted to viral solutions. Rabbit-killing viruses – first myxoma, then rabbit haemorrhagic disease – have rid many of our landscapes of rabbits and lulled Australians into a false sense of security… The Conversation http://theconversation.edu.au/controlling-rabbits-lets-not-get-addicted-to-viral-solutions-5701

City sets sights on Tamala Park’s rabbit, fox population. FERAL rabbits and foxes will be the target of a control program in Mindarie and Tamala Park in the next two months…North Coast http://northcoast.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/local-news/City-sets-sights-on-Tamala-Parks-rabbit-fox-population/7615663/

Party time for Northern Beaches rabbits as calicivirus loses potency: RABBITS have developed an immunity to the calicivirus, so the virus will not be released on the northern beaches this year…Manly Daily http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/northern-beaches-feral-rabbits-calicivirus-immunity-could-spark-increase/

Carp v Bass in Centennial Park Ponds. FOUR THOUSAND native bass fingerlings have been released into Centennial Parklands ponds to help reduce the carp population, with financial assistance from the Australian Chinese Charity Foundation…Sydney Central http://sydney-central.whereilive.com.au/news/story/angling-for-better-native-fish-stocks-sydney-centennial-park/

Upcoming Conferences

2012

  • Collaborate | Innovate | 2012 National Wine Centre in Adelaide from 15-17 May 2012.
  • Wildlife Tourism Australia’s 3rd National Workshop: ‘USING WILDLIFE FOR TOURISM’ Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Gold Coast Qld Wednesday – Friday 16-18th May 2012
  • 4th International Wildlife Management Congress. Durban, South Africa. 9-12 July 2012
  • Queensland Pest Animal Symposium. Caloundra. 30 July – 2 August 2012
  • Recreational Fishing Conference. Gold Coast. 17-19 August 2012
  • 3rd European Congress of Conservation Biology. Glasgow, Scotland. 28 August-1 September 2012
  • Fertility Control Conference. Jackson Wyoming, USA. 29 August-1 September 2012

For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.

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