Watch the shocking spread of feral deer across Victoria
2 September, 2022
This video, produced by the Invasive Species Council, tells the frightening story of the rise and rise of feral deer in Victoria.
Our ebulletin the Feral Herald covers conservation news and actions to help you protect Australia's native plants and wildlife from invasive species.
This video, produced by the Invasive Species Council, tells the frightening story of the rise and rise of feral deer in Victoria.
Our breakdown of the very worst and very best parts of the country’s biggest environment report in five years.
This is a story about two islands, both in Western Australia. One of them, Bernier, on the edge of Shark Bay, stands out as the Australian island that has saved more mammals from extinction than any other.
In August 2021, a member of the public noticed some troubling symptoms on their maple tree in East Fremantle.
A few months ago we put out a call. Over 700 people responded, letting Kosci’s parkies know how much we value their work protecting native wildlife from the damage of feral horses.
Varroa mites were detected in two of six sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, NSW, on 22 June. As of the latest official update on 27 July, there are now 43 known infested premises across central-eastern and north-eastern NSW.
Feral and roaming cats have already helped push 27 native animals into extinction, including a long-forgotten mainland parrot.
Yellow crazy ants are one of the world’s worst invasive species. The federal election result could close the door on the invasive ants in northern Queensland.
Sparked by the book Feral Future, the Invasive Species Council is now Australia’s lead organisation dedicated to tackling invasive species.
The 2022 federal election has been labelled a “greenslide”, with Australians turning out to vote for action on climate change and the environment.
As the Invasive Species Council celebrates 20 years, a major milestone was achieved – we co-hosted Australia’s second ever Biosecurity Symposium
There’s a federal election slated for May this year, and we have one word at the top of our priority list.
Our election guide to what needs to be done to tackle the #1 threat to our environment.
It’s been five years since we nearly lost funding to control these dangerous ants.
And, for the first time, we have also stripped a past winner of their award.
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?
Lord Howe Island is a treasure trove of native species, but behind the postcard idyll is a battle to protect it from invasive rodents.
A review of Tasmania’s wildlife regulations is the perfect time to end the protected ‘wildlife’ status of feral deer.
Time to put your thinking cap on and put forward nominations for this year’s Froggatt Awards.
Tim Low exposes a global trade in ‘pet ants’ that could unleash waves of environmentally destructive new ant invasions.
A new paper reveals invasive species as the highest impact threat to Australia’s native plants and animals.
Tim Low introduces Insect Watch, a handy guide for anyone interested in identifying and reporting potential new pest species.
The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions has launched an exciting new podcast series talking all things ‘feral animal and weeds’ innovation.
A review of Victoria’s Wildlife Act is a chance to move on from the past by managing feral deer as a pest.
Join a stimulating debate about the practical consequences of using 1080, a pesticide for controlling harmful invaders such as foxes.
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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.