Feral Herald Archives

Our Blog Archives

Before the Feral Herald became a blog it was a good old-fashioned newsletter. Delve into our archives below:

Issue 29, July 2012

  • Wildlife corridor planners cautioned
  • State of the Environment report card
  • Pacific seastar discovered at the Prom
  • Fear factor may increase feral damage
  • Antarctica, the last invasion
  • Looking Back: Quarantine Act 1909
  • Meet our new patron, John Landy
  • Invasives twice as deadly for seabirds

Issue 28, November 2011

  • Biosecurity: when one size does not fit all
  • Invasive animals research at a crossroads
  • No more KTP listings for invasive species?
  • TAP plan for northern pasture grasses
  • Pigeon virus outbreak
  • Managing exotic fish invasions in Australia

Issue 27, June 2011

  • Overseas incubators
  • Myrtle rust poses more questions than answers
  • RIRDC bites the bullet
  • Deer damage in our sites
  • Asian honeybees, a national biosecurity risk
  • Cattle and weed spread
  • $4 million fox bounty a waste of tax dollars
  • WA turns up the heat on northern palm squirrels
  • Exporting misery when plants for aid turn weedy
  • Frontline stories: Eradicating despoilers of Lord Howe Island

Issue 26, December 2010

  • Climate crops risk weedy date with destiny
  • Myrtle rust continues its spread
  • Australia’s new biodiversity plan
  • Northern mammals face fire and ferals
  • Down the rabbit hole with our new CEO
  • Ombudsman backs ISC complaint
  • Australian biosecurity should be a team effort
  • Rinderpest delt mortal blow
  • QLD deer strategy released
  • Weed control in Daintree Lowlands

Issue 25, September 2010

  • Exotic species sold online inherently risky
  • Australian biosecurity should be a team effort
  • Kakadu mammals in deadly decline
  • How many invaders are there?
  • Asian house gecko love affair needs rethink
  • How weeds endanger your health 
  • Exotic species sold online inherently risky
  • Australian biosecurity should be a team effort
  • Kakadu mammals in deadly decline
  • How many invaders are there?
  • Asian house gecko love affair needs rethink
  • How weeds endanger your health

Issue 24, April 2010

  • Hawke review warns hefty reforms needed
  • Monkey business in Darwin cause for alarm
  • South Australia puts an end to trials of weedy biofuel
  • ISC ready to build on strong track record
  • ‘Salinity solutions’ sow seeds of destruction
  • Feral horses run riot in Australian Alps
  • Weeds a key threatening process
  • Australia’s track record on pest eradication
  • Feline threats: Australia caught cat napping
  • Abbott proposes green army of weeders
  • Abalone virus threatens Victorian industry
  • Sambar deer numbers rising
  • Sometimes it takes a thief to catch a thief

Double Issue 22-23, October 2009

  • Invasive species blamed for ecological disaster on Christmas Island
  • Shooters’ Party takes pot shot at NSW national parks
  • National debate lifts profile of feral deer threat in Australia
  • QLD declares deer pests
  • NSW hunting council pits spin against science
  • Genetic boosters a shot in the arm for super weeds
  • Invasive species dominate grants
  • No signs of slowing cane toads
  • CRC lands $1.5m for rabbit project 
  • Glyphosate resistance spreads
  • Data shows big pig kills barely pack a punch
  • ESC pushes biosecurity reforms
  • QLD eliminates tilapia from private dams
  • Figures reveal size of agricultural footprint
  • Phytophthora gets a stranglehold on WA
  • Draft invasives framework out
  • Online database of marine pests

Issue 21, April 2009

  • ISC takes climate change and invasive species warning to the world
  • “Fox Stop” no barrier to foxes
  • Hunters, first in conservation?
  • Senate report deafening on invasives
  • Jatropha the “blunder crop”
  • Bushfires spark warning of weedy enemies within
  • Garden escapees on the run
  • Too much risk in new ventures
  • Invasives coalition first task for new team member
  • Europe – a plodder when it comes to pest species
  • Foxes confirmed in Tasmania
  • Exotic species, our new frequent flyers
  • International Biodiversity Day – turning the spotlight on invasives
  • Invasives a major threat to Ramsar wetlands
  • Leaf litter – time to turn over a new leaf
  • Australian snails cop a shell-lacking from weeds and feral animals
  • Weeds centre lands $2.5 million for research
  • States could lose quarantine power

Issue 20, January 2009

  • Victorian recreational deer hunting mistake
  • NT gamba ban
  • No to bumblebees
  • Hunting deal for new reserves
  • Crazy ant update
  • Asian honeybee battle
  • Quarantine report out
  • Federal Act weak on invasives
  • Tilapia threat to Gulf of Carpentaria
  • Mosquitofish or Plague Minnow?
  • Invasives threaten a third of rare birds
  • Worms away
  • Overview of marine invasives
  • High invasion rates
  • Weeds keep going… & going
  • New federal money for control

Issue 19, September 2008

  • Savannah cat ban
  • ISC weed book
  • Crazy ants
  • Grant givers
  • ISC alone
  • Qld biosecurity review
  • Federal EPBC review
  • Salinity project
  • Asian honeybees
  • What deer do
  • Brine shrimp
  • New weed guide
  • Phythphthora dieback
  • Aquatic invasions & climate
  • Trade & invasives
  • Botanic gardens
  • Wildlife research special

Issue 18, July 2008

  • QLD bans gamba
  • Quarantine enquiry
  • Savannah cats
  • Fodder follies
  • Climate change and invasive species report
  • Northern Territory failings
  • Queensland state of invasives
  • Victoria avoids reforms
  • Weeds CRC
  • Flora database
  • Drought weed
  • Australian mammals
  • Weed costs
  • Christmas Island plan
  • Indian ringnecks
  • Global strategy
  • New bee
  • New bird list
  • Fire ants

Issue 17, February 2008

  • Biofuels in the spotlight
  • Jatropha plans revealed
  • Gamba grass update
  • Horses for courses
  • Crazy ant hopes rise
  • Weeds CRC future
  • Arowana rejected
  • Climate change and weeds
  • Cane toads
  • Ant nomination
  • Deer threat listing
  • Threatening our trees
  • Climate change and allergenic weeds

Issue 16, September 2007

  • Gamba grass, a looming national disaster?
  • Annual General Meeting
  • Crazy ant progress
  • President moves on
  • Introducing Steve Mathews
  • Warning about biofuels
  • The weedy truth about biofuels
  • Invasive fungus
  • A focus on banteng
  • Know your ant
  • Pest or guest
  • Macquarie Island success
  • Asian honeybees
  • Aussie moth in California

Issue 15, April 2007

  • ISC begins tramp ant campaign
  • Biosecurity mergers
  • Macquarie Island rabbits
  • Weeds after the Tsunami
  • Camels in NSW
  • Objecting to Asian arowana
  • Shipping containers
  • Ants on Ashmore
  • Rock snot
  • Quarantine on Mars
  • Turbina goes wild in Qld

Issue 14, January 2007

  • Peak weed body killed
  • Weed Risk Assessment loophole closed
  • State of the Environment Report
  • Christmas Island crazy ant update
  • Pastures as weeds
  • Weeds and catchments
  • Bitou bush research
  • Weed Society seminar
  • Biosecurity Queensland
  • Pests and birds
  • Bumblebees
  • Biofuels

Issue 13, August 2006

  • Tramp ants – our worst pests?
  • Director’s report
  • 2006 ISC award
  • Biofuels: not so green
  • Bumblebees update
  • Argentinian bumblebees
  • Sika deer
  • Cecropia felled
  • Genetic engineered weed

Issue 11-12, May 2006

  • Bumblebee action call
  • ISC CD launch
  • Tropical grassy weeds
  • Aid for ailing frogs
  • Qld campaigning
  • Collared doves rejected
  • Starfish ousted
  • Precautionary principle
  • Hymenachne
  • Ferret fears
  • Aconophora

Issue 10, August 2005

  • New ISC director
  • Annual General Meeting 2005
  • Siam weed national survey
  • National hymenachne management group
  • Tiger mosquito
  • Global Warming and pests
  • Flies ousted from Antarctica
  • Collared doves

Issue 9, March 2005

  • Win on weed risk assessment
  • Cecropia to be banned
  • ISC wins funding for campaigner
  • Garden weeds jumping the fence
  • Senate inquiry report
  • Feral antelope
  • ISC Froggatt Award 2004 – Seastar Team
  • Invasive species forum
  • Marine threat
  • Precautionary principle project

Issue 8, September 2004

  • SPECIAL ISSUE on Weed Risk Assessment and the failure of the national import quarantine process

Issue 7, August 2004

  • Senate submission
  • Fire ant update
  • Tilapia win
  • Pests are costly
  • How many weeds?
  • Attack of the pines!
  • Aconophora update
  • Ferrets in Queensland
  • Invading turtles
  • Review of email information services

Issue 6, March 2004

  • Spotlight on cecropia
  • Inaugural ISC awards
  • Lantana bug escapes
  • Ballast invaders
  • Senate inquiry
  • New Bird Atlas

Issue 5, December 2003

  • The year in review
  • Escapes from zoos
  • Marine invaders
  • Protecting the Subantarctic
  • Global biodiversity forum

Issue 4, July 2003

  • Bumblebees and native bees
  • Democrats invasive species bill
  • Weed risk assessment update
  • Court action over olive hymenachne
  • Tramp ants
  • Bushland friendly nurseries

Issue 3, April 2003

  • Gaping holes in weed screen
  • Tilapia
  • New shrew
  • Ballast
  • Fouled hulls
  • Marine database
  • Weed alert
  • Sandbox tree
  • National weeds conference

Issue 2, April 2003

  • New salt-tolerant grass proposed
  • Tilapia in the Gulf
  • Foxes in Tassie
  • Prolific flowers equals prolific weeds
  • 13th annual weeds festival

Issue 1, September 2002

  • What is the ISC?
  • Profiles of committee members
  • New toad intercepted
  • Wet tropics weeds top 500

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.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


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.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]