The Western Riverina Pest Project has been nationally recognised and awarded for delivering the largest feral pig control program in Australia.
Earning a Froggatt Award, the project was recognised by the Invasive Species Council in the award category of ‘Control and Eradication’ for their innovative use of emerging technologies.
The program was implemented after landholders in the region had reported an alarming rise in feral pig numbers, which was resulting in significant livestock loses.
Local Land Services Biosecurity Officer Suzie Holbery says the project covers around 1.4 million hectares of land, including three national parks.
“In five years over 43,000 feral pigs have been removed from the program area and the population density has reduced from a peak of 11.2 pigs per square kilometre in 2017 down to 0.88 pigs in 2020,” Ms Holbery said.
“It is the programs intention to increase ground based control of these pest species as well as re-invigorate co-ordinated fox baiting groups.”
Ms Holbery says they used an aerial survey with infra-red thermal camera technology in order to gauge how the feral pig population was trackiong after 12 months of control activities.
“This monitoring technique provided us with the required information to react accordingly and stay in front of the feral pigs rate of reproduction,” Ms Holbery said.
“Thermal camera technology has also been trialled during aerial shooting programs to assist shooters to locate feral animals hidden from our standard view.”
Ms Holbery believes there will be significant benefits from removing the feral animals.
“The removal of these feral animals from the area is important for the protection of livestock from predation and disease, as well as from an environmental perspective to improve the health of the many wetlands and native species that exist across the landscape.”
