The Fraser Coast Regional Council has introduced a bounty claim system as an incentive to help reduce environmental, economical and social impacts from feral pigs and wild dog/dingo/dingo hybrids.
These feral animals are Class 2 pests and all landowners have a legal obligation to control these pests on their lands.
Wild Dogs
Wild dogs are non-domestic dogs, including dingoes and dingo hybrids. They are present throughout the state and kill, harass or maim sheep and cattle, domestic pets, native wildlife and other domestic animals. They are known vectors for other diseases capable of impacting on humans and livestock.
Feral Pigs
Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most widespread and damaging pest animals to the environment and agricultural production. Feral pigs in Australia are descendants of various subspecies of the domestic pig, accidental and deliberate releases of domestic and semi-feral pigs have resulted in a large feral population. Feral Pigs:
- can damage almost all crops from sowing to harvest
- feed on seed, grain, fruit and vegetable crops
- prey on lambs
- damage pastures by grazing and rooting
- can spread weeds
- can carry many diseases and parasites
Bounty Claims (Wild Dogs and Feral Pigs)
Bounty claims for the whole of the Fraser Coast Regional Council area must be taken to the Maryborough Landfill on Saltwater Creek Road, Maryborough.
Download a Claim Form or call into Council’s Customer Service Centres to collect one.
Foxes
European red foxes are adaptable and can be found in a variety of habitats that range from deserts to urban environments but exclude the tropics, depending on the local availability of food and shelter. Foxes are opportunistic feeders that will eat fruit, invertebrates, small mammals, frogs, fish, and birds. They are a threat to the survival of many ground-dwelling native animals, such as rock wallabies. In rural Australia, foxes kill a significant number of lambs and goat kids.
Feral cats
Feral cats are distributed throughout Queensland. They are highly adaptable animals that can survive and reproduce in all habitats. Few environmental factors limit their distribution.
Feral cats are able to increase numbers quickly under favourable conditions – female cats have three litters per year with an average of five kittens per litter. Domestic cats are continuously adding to the stray and feral cat population numbers (a cat’s status is not constant an owned cat may become feral). They are opportunistic predators and studies of their diet have shown that they prey on many native animals including: small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish.
Through predation, feral cats can cause disruption to ecosystems and are implicated in the elimination of some species from areas such as islands.
Deer
Eighteen (18) deer species were introduced into Australia in the late 19th and early 20th Century, 6 species survived - chital, red deer, rusa deer, fallow deer, hog deer and samba deer – and have formed viable wild populations. Impacts from deer can cause damage to:
• agricultural crops
• gardens in outer suburban areas
• they are hazardous to the public on suburban and rural roads
• large numbers of deer can also pose a threat to the environment
Control
Control methods for these pests include:
- shooting
- trapping
- fencing
- guard dogs
- poisoning
Management of these pests sometimes requires a combination of methods, and coordination of programs led by the Fraser Coast Regional Council, community and/or landowners for adequate control.
Rabbits
Rabbits have spread throughout Queensland, their pest status is mostly due to their enormous breeding capacity (18–30 young per female per year), which enables them to repopulate rapidly after droughts or control campaigns.
By competing for food and burrow space, they have contributed to the reduction in number and extinction of many native animals. They also reduce the quantity and quality of pasture for grazing animals, and are a primary cause of soil erosion by preventing the regeneration of native vegetation.
Rabbits are one of Australia’s worst agricultural and environmental pests, estimated to cost the nation between $600 million and $1 billion annually.
Control methods include: shooting, trapping, bio-control, fumigation, habitat modification.
