An Aussie island claims it is now the largest in the world without feral pigs after declaring victory in its boar war.<\/p>\n
For the past five years, Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, has waged war on feral pigs, in a bid to eradicate the invasive species. <\/p>\n
And following a $7.5m mission, which has seen hundreds of feral pigs culled, the island now claims to be completely ridden of the pests.<\/p>\n
Since being launched in the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires, the Kangaroo Island Feral Pig Eradication Program has removed 878 feral pigs, with the last known sows removed in March 2024.<\/p>\n
However, it has taken two years of careful monitoring and surveillance for authorities to finally declare the operation a success.<\/p>\n
Having gone two years without a single sighting, as part of the \u201cproof of freedom\u201d phase, the island has officially declared itself free of the pigs – which prey upon newborn lambs, damage crops and compete with livestock for pasture.<\/p>\n
Environment minister Murray Watt described it as \u201ca big step forward in protecting the incredible biodiversity of Kangaroo Island\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more feral pigs means helping the recovery of native species, including threatened plants and reducing the spread of dieback,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKangaroo Island is now a world leader in invasive species eradication, having successfully eradicated feral goats, deer and now pigs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scheme has been backed by $7.5m in funding from the federal and state governments, supported by SA\u2019s livestock industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cEradicating feral pigs from Kangaroo Island is a tremendous achievement and fantastic news for the island, its farmers, the environment and South Australia as a whole,\u201d said Clare Scriven, South Australian minister for primary industries and regional development.<\/p>\n
\u201cKangaroo Island is now the largest island anywhere in the world from which an established feral pig population has been eradicated. That is an extraordinary result and everyone involved should be incredibly proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation capitalised on devastating wildfires in 2020, which tore through the feral pig population, wiping out 90 per cent of the island\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompleting feral pig eradication is a major win for our farmers, our environment and the long-term biosecurity of the island,\u201d said Andrew Heinrich, chairman of the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese achievements do not happen by accident. They come from years of persistence, skilled people on the ground, strong partnerships, landholder support, good science and smart technology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Aussie island claims it is now the largest in the world without feral pigs after declaring victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[355058,64,63,689,355061,355067,355070,234235,355059,266829,25272,355064,355066,355071,355069,98283,355062,8969,355072,25160,283294,355057,355060,13404,187436,677,355063,355065,128,355068,1124,338],"class_list":["post-734306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-andrew-heinrich","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-minister","tag-boar-war","tag-claims-victory","tag-clare-scriven","tag-damage-crops","tag-david-hannant","tag-environment-minister","tag-eradication-effort","tag-feral-pig-eradication","tag-feral-pig-population","tag-feral-pig-war","tag-feral-pigs","tag-feral-pigs-means","tag-invasive-species","tag-invasive-species-eradication","tag-kangaroo-island","tag-kangaroo-island-landscape-board","tag-landholder-support","tag-livestock-industry","tag-murray-watt","tag-newswire-news","tag-oceania","tag-pig-eradication-mission","tag-pig-eradication-program","tag-science","tag-single-sighting","tag-south-australia","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}