2020-02-11 P&E Agenda - Item 5 - Attachment 2 - Draft Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020

5.2        Invasive animals
5.2.1      Management techniques
Invasive animals can be highly mobile, seeking out territories and searching for food and prey. As
for invasive plant controls, different techniques are used to control invasive animals depending on
the scale and location of the issue. These will often be used together in an integrated approach, as
rarely will one method alone be successful in reducing the biosecurity risk. Council is guided by
industry best practice and will continue to explore management alternatives that are safe, cost
effective and practical. Methods are summarised in the table below.
 Method             Advantages                   Disadvantages                   Examples
 Trapping           Targeted control             Labour intensive, small         Pig trapping
                                                 targeted      areas    only,
                                                 ineffective for some species
 Baiting            Targeted control, through    Concerns      from   some       Wild dog, pig and fox control
                    choice and placement of      sectors of the community
                    baits                        regarding distress to feral
                                                 animal and risk to non-
                    Cost effective
                                                 target species
 Shooting           Targeted control             Only where safe in rural        Wild deer control
                                                 areas, not practical for some
                                                 species
 Canid       Pest   Targeted control             Concerns     from    some       Wild dog, foxes
 Ejectors (CPEs)                                 sectors of the community
                                                 regarding distress to feral
                                                 animal
 Den fumigation     Targeted control             Labour intensive                Foxes
 Fencing            Complete exclusion           Expensive to build and          All feral species
                                                 maintain. Some species
                                                 damage or can climb (foxes)
                                                 Shifts    the       problem
                                                 elsewhere
 Guardian dogs,     Doesn’t require the use of   Can be expensive to train,      Wild dogs
 alpacas, llamas    poisons or firearms          purchase and maintain
 and donkeys
                                                 Doesn’t reduce feral animal
                                                 numbers and shifts the
                                                 problem elsewhere

Table 6: Advantages and disadvantages of various pest animal control methods


New management options for feral animals are constantly emerging with new products, techniques
and technologies coming onto the market, with the aim of tackling emerging threats. Council has,
and will continue to trial new technologies as they become available, assessing them for efficacy,
safety, cost effectiveness, and potential off-target impact.




Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020                                                                          Page 19