A strategy for effectively managing feral pig impacts in agricultural enterprises in northern Queensland

Abstract

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are arguably one of Australia’s most devastating introduced vertebrate pests. In addition to agricultural impacts variously estimated to be between $100 million and $10 million (Bengsen et al. 2014) per annum, feral pigs are also listed as a threatening process under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), predominantly due to predation and habitat degradation impacts. Feral pigs are ubiquitous in the Wet Tropics of northern Australia and, with an abundant source of suitable habitat including water, food and refuge, have implications as vectors of exotic disease. Agriculture forms a relatively small proportion of land area in this region, with the result that agricultural enterprises are under continual pressure from surrounding feral pig populations.
Despite this pressure, assessed feral pig impacts on cane production have steadily decreased from $1.2 million to $200,000 in the last decade (Di Bella, 2016). In this paper, we discuss the strategies utilised to achieve this reduction and present the results of a study that monitored the efficacy and non-target impacts of the applied control methods.