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New fire ant outbreak highlights need for federal biosecurity inquiry

The outbreak of red imported fire ants at Gladstone, recently confirmed as a separate incursion to the existing fire ant population around Brisbane, shows the need for an inquiry into Australia’s preparedness for new environmental invasive species, the Invasive Species Council said today.

“Invaders such as red imported fire ants can create havoc in the Australian environment and a Parliamentary inquiry is a good way to learn from recent quarantine failures about how we can improve our state of preparedness,” said Andrew Cox, Invasive Species Council CEO.

“With Biosecurity Queensland genetic testing showing that the red imported fire ants at Gladstone arrived separately from those in southeast Queensland, it is clear that the quarantine system has failed successively against one of our most serious invaders.

“Other failures in recent years have resulted in the establishment of Asian honeybees, myrtle rust, pigeon paramyxovirus, and smooth newts and multiple new infestations of yellow crazy ants.

“The Invasive Species Council first called for a Parliamentary inquiry into our preparedness to tackle the arrival of new environmental pests and weeds when the deadly fungus, myrtle rust, was detected in Australia in 2010.

“These recent cases all show the immense difficulty and high costs of eradicating invaders once they establish. Much more planning and surveillance is directed to high priority agricultural threats than to environmental threats. A parliamentary inquiry would examine how we can address this deficiency.

“The red imported fire ants in Gladstone probably arrived about two years ago from goods imported from the USA. Eradication efforts are so far looking promising and affected businesses and landholders are cooperating well.

“The red imported fire ant is a 2-6 mm long brownish or coppery ant, with a very painful sting. When disturbed, they swarm from their nest like an erupting volcano and repeatedly attack. The ants would transform natural systems, eliminating much of the native ground fauna.

The Greens supported an inquiry prior to the September 2013 Federal election, while Labor and the Coalition are yet to commit.

“The environmental biosecurity inquiry would review the systemic failings in contingency planning, surveillance and responses to new environmental invaders to Australia.

For comment: Andrew Cox, CEO, Invasive Species Council on 0438 588 040.

For more information: Eradicating Red Imported Fire Ants: Too Devastating To Fail

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Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

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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,
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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.

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