Rural Solutions SA is gaining State and national recognition for the design of programs to manage large feral herbivores, particularly camels.

After two years of research and the development of new methods to deal with feral camels the Rural Solutions SA Resource Protection and Development team have arrived at some innovative solutions to the camel issue.

This program is being conducted on behalf of South Australian Arid Lands and Alintyjara Willurara Natural Resources Management Boards, the Desert Knowledge CRC and the Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation.

Caption
Feral camels on the move in outback Australia

Project team leader is Rural Solutions SA’s John Pitt.

The feral camel population in Australia is now estimated to exceed one million animals distributed over more than 40 percent of the continent.

This is the largest and only feral camel population in the world, impacting pastoralists, Aboriginal communities and conservation areas at a landscape scale.

Impacts include damage to infrastructure such as fences, increasing grazing pressure to native vegetation, and the degradation and depletion of important natural water sources such as rock holes and water holes.

As this feral camel herd is mainly distributed in arid areas the impact to natural surface waters is particularly concerning as these present an important resource to native fauna, including a range of rare and endangered species.

The impact on native flora and fauna is not well documented and there is great concern that the feral camel population has reached greater than 0.7 per km² over extensive areas in the north west of South Australia, eastern Western Australia and southern NT.

At populations greater than 0.7 per km² some vegetation species will be seriously impacted during dry periods due to camel grazing.

The total feral camel population in Australia is increasing at about 10 percent per annum, resulting in an additional 100,000 in 2008 and more each year.

The cost of managing this issue is also escalating, presenting land managers, natural resource management funding organisations and the wider community with a dilemma.

Rural Solutions SA in partnership with CSIRO and with funding provided through Natural Heritage Trust, has been the key driver in developing a market based instrument approach to find an acceptable administrative and economically feasible solution to the issue.

For further information contact John Pitt.

Date of release 12 December

Terry Price asked John just how big an issue the feral camel population is?

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