Feral pig baiting with fruit in the wet tropics

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are a significant agricultural and environmental pest across Australia. The main method of feral pig control is poisoning with (1080) baits. Pigs are omnivores and have a diverse diet which includes carrion, insects, grains, bulbs, fruits, and plant material. Availability and familiarity play an important role in determining pig diet preferences, and diet varies according to location and season. The most common bait material to target feral pigs is either grain or meat but, in the wet tropics areas of north Queensland, meat and grain have limited uptake and are thus unsuitable. The bait materials of choice, due to both availability and pig preference, are local fruits. To date, there has been a relative paucity of data available on the efficacy and non-target impacts of the use of 1080 in fruit and vegetables as feral pig baits. Over a four month period, bait visitation and uptake by various species for both poisoned and un-poisoned banana and mango baits, and changes in species indices on poisoned and un-poisoned sites, were monitored during routine feral pig baiting programs in representative areas. Bait consumption by non-targets was minimal. More importantly, there were no significant differences in the abundance of overall non-target groups, whether based on taxonomic, dietary or IUCN classifications. Over the duration of the monitoring, baiting resulted in an 80% reduction in pigs detected. Our results demonstrate that pig baiting using fruit baits can be highly effective at managing feral pig populations with negligible risk to non-target species.