Feral pig campaign hits targets

However, one big bonus for the environment’s recovery is the likely eradication of feral pigs, say ecology and biosecurity experts from Flinders University and the State Government Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA).

Invasive feral pigs (Sus scrofa) cause a wide range of environmental, economic and social damages. In Australia, feral pigs occupy about 40% of the mainland and offshore islands, with a total, yet highly uncertain, population estimated at around 13.5 million.

Feral pigs are recognised as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, with impacts on at least 148 nationally threatened species and eight threatened ecological communities (Commonwealth of Australia 2017). They are a declared invasive species and the subject to control programs in all Australian jurisdictions.

In a new article published in international journal Ecosphere, scientists from the Flinders University Global Ecology Lab and PIRSA give optimal strategies for culling feral pigs.