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National Feral Animal Control Program NFACP
What is National Feral Animal Control Program (NFACP)?
Background and best practice information
Past NFACP Projects
What is the National Feral Animal Control Program?
The National Feral Animal Control Program (NFACP) has been established under the Australian Government's Natural Heritage Trust to develop and implement, in cooperation with State, Territory and Local Governments, a program to reduce the damage to agriculture caused by pest animals.
The main objectives of the NFACP are to:
- develop integrated, strategic approaches to manage the impacts of nationally significant pest animals
- improve the effectiveness of control techniques and strategies for reducing pest animal impact (see project list)
- produce guidelines for the management of nationally significant pest animals
Background
Vertebrate pests, such as rabbits, foxes and feral goats now make up about ten per cent of Australia's mammal fauna. They have adapted and spread into most of Australia's agricultural systems and natural environments. None have been eradicated, despite considerable effort. With available control techniques, it is unlikely to be technically, economically or socially feasible to eradicate any established, widespread vertebrate pest from the Australian mainland. Therefore the focus of the National Feral Animal Control Program (NFACP) is on strategic, sustained best practice management of pest animals where they are causing actual rather than perceived damage.
Best practice pest management involves:
1. Managing actual rather than perceived impactsOften impacts will not be quantified at the start of the project. For some situations, NFACP would prefer to support 12-month pilot projects to define: basic pest ecology (e.g. relating movements and density to damage); nature and extent of impact; and, the stakeholders involved in the problem. Monitoring agricultural production responses to pest control during the management phase of field projects should provide some quantification of pest animal impacts and the effectiveness of management strategies.
2.Impact-based management rather than pest-based managementThe focus of NFACP is not on killing pest animals per se, but reducing their impact. In some situations there are more technically, economically and socially feasible ways to reduce damage than killing pest animals (e.g. pruning parrot-damaged bluegum trees can be more effective than killing parrots). Additionally, the relationship between pest density and resultant damage is not well known and is often not uniform, so reducing pest animals down to a target density may not achieve an expected or proportional reduction in damage. In other situations, pest animals are not causing major damage, or there are more significant causes of damage, so killing them will not achieve the desired improvement in agricultural production or resource/ecosystem condition.
3. Strategic managementManagement should be strategic in terms of:
- management area
- management timing
- long-term strategy rather than one-off management
- combination of control techniques rather than single technique.
Managing pest animals at the local or regional scale reduces problems with pests immigrating into treated areas and achieves economies of scale. It is also important to involve all stakeholders in defining management problems and solutions.
5. Commercial use where appropriateCommercial use may improve the economic feasibility of pest management and is a useful management technique if it reduces pest densities down to a level where damage is adequately reduced or if it is used as the first part of a higher level control program.
6. Humane techniques and strategies
NFACP will support the development of more humane pest management techniques and strategies where their efficacy and cost-effectiveness is likely to be comparable to existing approaches.
Past NFACP Projects
Adaptive fox and rabbit management in agricultural areasAerial survey techniques for feral goats
Assessment of the effectiveness of habitat manipulation as a fox control strategy
Best practice feral pig management in the Burdekin River Catchment
Bird control and damage: understanding the relationship
Bird damage to the wine grape industry in the Central Ranges of NSW
Crop and pasture protection from rabbits in native bush remnants
Demonstration of best practice techniques for mouse control in irrigated summer crops in southern NSW
Development and registration of manufactured feral pig baits
Development of second stage of MOUSER, a DSS and information transfer system for mouse plague management
Development of training packages for the management of the impact of vertebrate pests in Australia
Economic evaluation of feral pig control strategies in North Queensland
Efficacy of bait stations for broadacre control of rabbits
Extension/training modules to promote adoption of best practice pest management
Integrated feral predator control in south-west Queensland
Monitoring systems for feral pigs
National Feral Animal Control Program Projects
Radio telemetry-determined correction factors for aerial survey of feral goats
Refining target specificity of M44 ejectors - attractants and presentation methods
Strategic management of Rabbit Calicivirus Disease
Target-specific bait/delivery systems for alternative feral pig control toxins
The ecology of livestock predation
The impact of wild dog control on cattle, native and introduced herbivores and introduced predators