The project targeted four species with three distinct methods used to eliminate Wild Dogs & Foxes, Feral Cats and Rabbits in adhering to recommendations made by HLM in the previous year.
Wild Dogs & Foxes
1080 Meat baits are buried in the ground with attractant on the surface, utilising a tethered skewer and compacted adjacent soil for species identification.
Feral Cats
Feral Cats are caught with attractants placed inside cage featuring automatically shutting door. Feral Cats are then humanely destroyed onsite.
Locations of the Cat Traps.
Rabbits
Rabbits are controlled with baiting structures containing Pindone set up in target areas.
Locations of Rabbit Baiting structures
Results
- The results of the program saw a recorded 8 wild dog takes from the 122 baits monitored throughout the control program. A bait consumption rate of 6.6%
- Foxes evidently consumed 13 1080 baits throughout the control program, an overall consumption rate of baits of 10.7%
- Rabbits consumed 600g of baited oats in Winter 2010, 800g in Spring 2010 and 400g in Summer 2011 giving consumption rates of 25%, 33% and 25% in respect to the amount of baits presented for that season.
- Cat traps were installed as a follow up program to the previously undertaken works in Spring 2010 which saw 1 cat successfully captured.No cats have been caught or have any evidence of cats been sighted in the area since.
As Hunter Land Management has a significant history of baiting and managing Wild Dogs and Foxes on the site we can conclude that :
- Although this program had some interruptions during monitoring, the overall trend of baiting and control saw an increase in bait consumption and target animal activity.
- Overall the bait consumption increased in this control period from 14.11% recorded in the previous Spring 2010 program to 15.57% this Summer 2011 program.
- Since Autumn 2010 there has been an evident increase in bait consumption and activity of target species onsite.
In response to the results and findings of the vertebrate pest management conducted, Hunter Land Management recommended Coal and Allied:
- Undertake an Autumn 2011 1080 baiting program to address the increasing consumption rates of target species.
- Undertake these works in conjunction with the HLM broad scale Autumn vertebrate pest control program.
- Undertake sand pad monitoring to update abundances records of feral animals onsite. This will decipher the effectiveness of vertebrate pest control works along with identifying active areas which control works can be targeted.
- Undertake cat trapping and Pindone rabbit baiting if observable sign is noted.
- Introduce and utilise HLM sighting sheets. These sighting sheets have been effective in HLM’s control works conducted at Hunter Valley Operations mines. Sighting sheets are to be distributed in crib rooms for employees to fill in and send to environmental officer at MTW which can be forwarded to HLM. These sighting sheets can then be used to strategically target and control animals in these areas which people have primarily seen them in.
