Our ebulletin the Feral Herald covers conservation news and actions to help you protect Australia's native plants and wildlife from invasive species.
Rewilding is often a story of decades-long persistence in the face of adversity, and our recent experience trapping southern brown bandicoots at Booderee National Park
Dr Robert Puckett from Texas A&M University is no stranger to Australia’s fire ant fight.
Held at the iconic SeaWorld Resort on the Gold Coast from August 27-29, this year’s Australian Biosecurity Symposium was nothing short of groundbreaking!
Australia’s wet tropics area is the most biodiverse part of Australia – and all of it is under threat.
Norfolk Island is a green jewel in the vast Pacific ocean – a unique place of biodiversity with species found nowhere else in the world, a fascinating history and distinct culture.
Leaving a gift in your Will to the Invasive Species Council is a powerful way to ensure a wildlife revival in Australia and a future-proof nature.
A scathing new report has revealed that invasive species are costing New South Wales at least $1.9 billion annually – with the potential to balloon to a staggering $29.7 billion per year by 2030.
The Yalmy galaxias is a member of what probably counts as Australia’s most threatened group of animals. The last survey of the critically endangered species,
In the midst of an extinction crisis, our problematic invasive species are big winners in the federal budget. The 2024 budget was a missed opportunity,
It was a weed that Sydney almost eliminated. In the 1970’s the NSW government banned pampas grass (Cortaderia species) and ran an effective education campaign
Tasmania is a remarkable island state with native animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth. It has some of Australia’s most spectacular protected areas
Recently I visited lungtalanana island, once called Clarke Island, with the mob from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. They’re undertaking a cultural restoration project on the
The 3rd Australian Biosecurity Symposium is making waves! The Symposium will be held at SeaWorld Resort on the Gold Coast from 27-29 August 2024.Our symposium
Lyall Grieve is Conservation and Biosecurity Analyst for the Invasive Species Council. A closing window of opportunity Australian environmental protection has reached the moment of
Update: This article has been amended to improve accuracy. On a recent visit to Barrington Tops National Park, Tim Low and Carol Booth experienced the
A spate of fire ant discoveries in Queensland has set alarm bells ringing, but instead we should treat them as a sign the new eradication program is beginning to hit its straps.
Environmental biosecurity might still be a mouthful for most Australians, but it is gaining traction within government circles, and needs to become a much greater focus when we talk about protecting the nation from future environmental threats.
On Wednesday, 26 July, Australia’s agriculture ministers signed off on a new, $411 million eradication program. Fire ant fight 2.0 is a fight we must win.
A five-year review could shake-up Australia’s biosecurity arrangements, finally putting environmental pests and diseases on a par with agricultural and human health threats.
Tick, tick, tick. That’s the sound of invasive browsing ants, an environmental time bomb if they have escaped eradication efforts in Darwin.
Biosecurity Queensland received a rude shock recently when deadly fire ants turned up 70km north of Brisbane’s containment zone.
While keeping your gear clean may feel like a chore, it can actually go a long way in helping to keep our parks and reserves free of weeds and soil-borne diseases, says bushwalk leader Caro Ryan.
Securing Australia’s agricultural industries from dangerous new invasive species has long been the top priority in our biosecurity systems, but when it comes to environmental risks we haven’t fared so well. Well, that’s starting to change.
Securing Australia’s agricultural industries from dangerous new invasive species has long been the top priority in our biosecurity systems, but when it comes to environmental risks we haven’t fared so well. Well, that’s starting to change.
Biosecurity beagles in Hobart, dogs sniffing out orange hawkweed in the alps and a terrier with a penchant for cat eradication are just some of the animal eco-warriors you will meet in a new book by Nic Gill.
We led the call for governments across the country to fully fund the complete eradication of red fire ants from Australia. Now we look at how the program can get the job done.
A locally-led campaign to eradicate yellow crazy ants has resulted in native wildlife finally returning to wet tropics rainforest just north of Cairns.
The NSW government has failed to properly address the growing threat of feral deer, eradication of red-eared slider turtles or the spread of redfin perch.
Last year it was listed as Australia’s Number 1 National Priority Plant Pest, but how many of you have ever heard about Xylella fastidiosa? And could it threaten our native plants?
When development began on Barrow Island’s highly controversial Gorgon gas project many feared the massive development would bring with it unwelcome new inhabitants to the island paradise. Did it?
We visited Kosciuszko National Park with Penny Sharpe, NSW’s new environment minister, where we face rising feral horse numbers.
This year, we’ve been at the heart of one of the biggest issues for nature. By giving nature a voice, we’re making a difference together.
While COVID has been spreading around the world, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has also been spreading.
One of the most promising new tools in development that is helping to protect native wildlife outside predator-free havens is the Felixer.
The feral deer population has exploded so much in recent years that people have referred to them as the next rabbit plague. Australia now has millions of feral deer and, without action, scientists predict they could soon inhabit nearly every ecosystem across every part of the continent.
Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox reflects on a recent visit to the first ever outbreak of red fire ants on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island).
With the NSW election just weeks away, where do the major parties stand on ensuring funding and policies to manage feral horses, deer, weeds, cats and other invasive species are top priorities for NSW? Here are highlights from our work on the ground as of 8 March.
Environment minister Plibersek has recognised the dismal failings of our national environmental laws. Her commitment to rewrite this law coupled with her commitment to zero new extinctions provides an exciting opportunity to establish a new era in nature conservation.
The agricultural and environmental biosecurity office has had budgets slashed, biosecurity funding is on the table, the National Biosecurity Strategy is moving forward, and the Decade of Biosecurity has a new national coordinator.
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Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.
But you can help to turn this around and create a wildlife revival in Australia.
From numbats to night parrots, a tax-deductible donation today can help defend our wildlife against the threat of invasive weeds, predators, and diseases.
As the only national advocacy environment group dedicated to stopping this mega threat, your gift will make a big difference.
A silent crisis is unfolding across Australia. Every year, billions of native animals are hunted and killed by cats and foxes. Fire ants continue to spread and threaten human health. And the deadly strain of bird flu looms on the horizon. Your donation today will be used to put the invasive species threat in the media, make invasive species a government priority, ensure governments take rapid action to protect nature and our remarkable native wildlife from invasives-led extinction, death and destruction.
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Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
