Invasive Animals CRC - Invasive Animals -

10.U.6 Daintree demonstration site: control of feral pigs in tropical rainforest

The rainforests of Queensland's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA) support a disproportionately large component of Australia's biodiversity, including numerous endangered plant and animal species. The WTWHA is also a major tourist drawcard and rainforest-related tourism is worth several hundred million dollars annually.

Feral pigs are regarded as one of the most important vertebrate pests of the WTWHA. They have, or can have, substantial deleterious impacts on a range of important environmental, economic, human health and social values in the WTWHA. Frequently cited environmental impacts include: predation of native plant and animal species; disruption of trophic webs; weed and pathogen transmission, and erosion and water quality deterioration.

Economic impacts are largely incurred by primary producers and include damage to produce and infrastructure, lost production potential and the cost of control. The successful introduction of a serious exotic veterinary disease, such as foot and mouth disease, to the local feral pig population would be an economic catastrophe. Feral pigs may also serve as amplifiers and vectors for important human diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis and leptospirosis.

Feral pigs are widespread in the WTWHA. Methods currently used to mitigate the impacts of feral pigs in Australia are largely based on reducing pig abundance by increasing mortality and include poison baiting, trapping and shooting. Poison baiting is generally regarded as the most effective and efficient method of producing the population reduction required to significantly reduce the impacts of pigs on the environment. However, trapping remains the preferred pig control method within the WTWHA due to the potential for poison baiting programs to impact non-target species, particularly species of conservation significance such as the Cassowary and Spotted-tailed Quoll. Trapping alone is unlikely to provide the level of population control required to prevent rapid recovery to pre-control levels.

This project aims to assess the impacts of feral pigs on the conservation value of the Wet Tropics Natural Heritage Area and develop acceptable means of enhancing pig control in the WTWHA. It is comprised of four sub-projects:

Impacts: Amanda Elledge (PhD, CSIRO Townsville and UQ St Lucia) is investigating the impact of feral pig rooting on vegetation, soil, leaf litter and macro-invertebrates in rainforests

Control: Andrew Bengsen (PhD, CSIRO Townsville and UQ Gatton) is developing novel management tools and procedures to overcome current constraints on effective pig control in the Wet Tropics
Social issues: Carla Meurk (PhD, UQ St Lucia) is focusing on conflict in feral pig management in the Wet Tropics and seeking to better understand the varying social and political values of feral pigs in this region
Economics: An unappointed position (post-doc,CSIRO Townsville) will undertake economic analysis of the marginal benefits and costs of pig management.

Major project aims are to:

determine the socio-economic and ecological thresholds of feral pig density/damage and the probability of the benefits of control
improve baiting success for pigs in the WTWHA
reduce the impact of pigs in the WTWHA
develop novel management tools for rainforest feral pigs and determine their efficacy
increase understanding of the ecological impacts of feral pigs in the rainforest and adjacent agricultural ecosystems.

Project collaborators:

CSIRO

University of Queensland (UQ)

James Cook University (JCU)

Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA)

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS)

Douglas Shire Council (DSC)

Animal Control Technologies Australia (ACTA)

Australian Wildlife Conservancy- Brooklyn Sanctuary (AWC)

Project leader

Professor Iain Gordon, CSIRO

Contacts

Iain Gordon
Group Leader, Rangeland Systems
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Tel: (07) 4753 8509
Iain.Gordon@csiro.au

Private Mail Bag PO

Aitkenvale, QLD 4814 Australia

Team members

Prof. Brian Roberts (JCU)
Dr Miriam Goosem (JCU)
Dr Ian Russell (UQ)
Dr Luke Leung (UQ)
Ms Ellen Weber (WTMA)
Ms Tina Alderson (QPWS)
Mr Mick Blackman (AWC)
Mr Peter Logan (DSC)
Dr Stephen Lapidge (IA CRC)

Ms Carla Meurk (UQ)
Mr Andrew Bengsen (UQ)
Ms Amanda Elledge (UQ)
(IA CRC Students)

Documents

document Uptake Update 8
[pdf 440.2 kb]