Eyre Peninsula foxes and rabbits on the run

Introduced feral animals like foxes, cats and rabbits can have a devastating impact on native species and farm production. However, an initiative on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula is ensuring that native species can rest easier and lambing percentages increase.

The Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board's West Coast Integrated Pest Management Program has been recruiting the help of local landholders to deal with the foxes and rabbits on public and private land.

Funding

Since 2000 the Australian Government has provided the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board with more than $580,000 to help protect the Peninsula's native species from feral animals.

Activities

Current Program Coordinator Yvonne Smith said the project began in 1999 - with support from two previous Animal and Plant Control Boards and the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage. The original aim was to provide a 50-kilometre radius buffer zone around a predator proof fence to help reintroduce Brush-tailed Bettongs and Bilbies into Venus Bay Conservation Park.

The program grew far beyond its initial aim.

"Interest grew quickly, and landholders got involved, joining neighbourhood groups," Yvonne said.

"We support the landholders in conducting two coordinated fox baiting programs annually, plan and implement rabbit control programs and promote feral cat control.

"The biology of feral animals influences the control methodology adopted. For foxes, baiting takes place in spring when they are breeding, and in autumn when the young ones are dispersing. Rabbit control, such as baiting, is best conducted when green feed is low, usually in summer, followed up with warren destruction."

Yvonne said consideration of farming commitments and the ability of farmers to participate at these critical times has helped the success of the program.

Achievements

In just six years, involvement in the program grew from 30 landholders to more than 450 registered participants covering about 1.5 million hectares of land.

Yvonne said that ongoing monitoring of populations seemed to show the program was successful at keeping fox and rabbit numbers low. This benefited both agricultural productivity and the environment.

"We have identified increased lambing percentages, which indicate it is working for production, and a lot of anecdotal evidence suggests that native animals are appearing on properties again," she said.

"And because the neighbourhood groups meet regularly with the Board's authorised officers, landholders have access to up-to-date information about other pests and weed control, further broadening the program's breadth."

More information

• Yvonne Smith, Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board West Coast Integrated Pest Management Program Coordinator: (08) 8626 1108 or westpest@epnrm.com
• Jeanie Quilliam, Eyre Peninsula Regional Natural Resources Management Liaison Officer: (08) 8688 3413 or quilliam.jeanie@saugov.sa.gov.au

Australian Government NRM Team
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
1800 552 008 (toll-free)

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Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative jointly administered by the Australian Government departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts