Impact of Feral Pigs within Tropical Freshwater Ecosystems

Abstract

Environmental impacts of feral pigs have not been studied intensively; very little quantitative information on the ecological impacts caused by the feral pig throughout Australia is available. The perception by the community is that feral pigs are doing substantial ecological damage and pose a threat to ecological values in the tropics. There is a distinct lack of information on a number of threatened ecosystems and in particular there is a scarcity of information in relation to the dry tropics seasonal freshwater habitats. The Threat Abatement Plan (Anon 2005) has proposed a number of rare or endangered species and ecosystems that are regarded as threatened or suspected of being threatened by feral pig impacts. A number of these species and ecosystems occur in the dry tropics and in particular the tropical freshwater ecosystems.
The primary aim of this study was to quantify the threat feral pigs pose to the health of tropical freshwater ecosystems.