The feral pigs being trapped by Terrain's Integrated Feral Pig Management Project are not little cute pink ones like Babe who help farmers to muster sheep, they are quite the opposite! - they carry disease and are destructive to our landscape and farming industry. The project has been responsible for reducing the population of feral pigs across the Cassowary Coast Area by 401 since Cyclone Yasi.

After Cyclone Yasi hit almost one year ago, there was a rise in numbers of feral pigs across Tully, Innisfail and Mission Beach. Shortly after that time the feral pig project was on the ground trapping and baiting. Along the way there have been changes and advances in the running of the project, however the essential underlying task of reducing numbers of feral pigs to reduce impact on production and habitat remains a priority.

Community involvement is critical to the success of the project. A series of feral pig shed meetings were held at the end of 2011, which discussed hunting strategy and financial contributions. The meetings were also the ideal opportunity for the project's newly appointed coordinator Kirsten McKimmie to meet Landholders and get valuable first hand opinions.

In partnership with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, an official field trial of a new cassowary-excluding feral pig trap design will be run. The series of trap trials aim to have the new Cassowary friendly trap design accredited as 'best practice' for feral pig trapping in the Wet Tropics.

The project is also in partnership with Queensland University of Technology to conduct a feral pig study which is examining the DNA of pigs caught and shot in the traps. It is hoped to identify the geographic ranges of specific pig populations. Knowing whether or not different pig population interact across the landscape will help to improve the management strategy. The DNA study can also show whether or not pigs are being relocated to the project area from outside the range of the genetically related populations, meaning that it could be people which are responsible for transporting a class II feral animal around the landscape!

For more information about the Integrated Feral Pig Management Project, or to report feral pig problems, please contact Kirsten McKimmie via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .