The Feral Animal Management Program works with government agencies, research groups, industry, stakeholders and the local community to determine the distribution, impact, management and control techniques for feral animals on the Island. The program’s success has attracted funding from the Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) as a demonstration site.
The program is working to:
- Determine relative cat densities across KI;
- Manage feral (unidentified) cats and monitor outcomes in urban areas once domestic cats are individually identified;
- Trial new cat baits as they become available;
- Estimate relative abundance of deer, pigs, and goats and implement monitoring programs to determine success of management; and
- Implement an eradication program for deer.
- Collect baseline information on movements, habitat use and social dynamics of deer, goats and pigs. This will allow for informed decisions to be made relating to the location and timing of trial management activities.
- Implement trial eradication programs for goats and pigs based on sound management planning and biological iinformation.
This program has:
- Collected baseline information on the distribution and abundance, population dynamics, habitat use and social structure of pests.
- Implemented a trial eradication of goats using radio-collared Judas animals in association with the Department for Environment and Heritage, SA;
- Implemented an eradication program for deer;
- Contributed to the development and implementation of the Kangaroo Island Council’s domestic cat by-laws requiring owned cats to be registered, de-sexed, identified and confined;
- Collected genetic samples from pigs to identify management units according to DNA fingerprinting
- Trialled new baits such as Pigout (developed by the Invasive Animals CRC and Animal Control Technologies) and identified problems and solutions for non-target species.
To develop this program baseline information has been collected on distribution and relative abundance, population dynamics, habitat use and social structure of the targeted animals.
Future objectives include continuation of the eradication programs and the implementation of a long term pig management program.
Feral Animal management strategies and reports are available through the Document Library.
Above right: Project staff with a feral goat in Flinders Chase National Park.
Contact
Pip Masters, Feral Animal Management Project Manager, KI NRM Board, ph: (08) 8553 4375
Nick Markopoulos, Feral Animal Project Officer, KI NRM Board, ph: (08) 8553 4376
Brenton Florance, Feral Animal Pest Control Officer, KI NRM Board, ph: (08) 8553 4377