What makes goats a pest

Subscribe via email to receive regular updates from CISS. I want to select action develop a management plan for find control tools options for evaluate a management plan for learn about.

Watch this Meet the Ferals episode on feral goats. Management Framework Plan Develop your feral goat action plan Map and monitor with FeralGoatScan Manage Model code of practice for the humane control of feral goats Feral goat control methods humaneness matrix Ground shooting of feral goats Aerial shooting of feral goats Mustering of feral goats Trapping of feral goats Use of Judas goats Improve Evaluate and modify your feral goat action plan.

Case Studies. The animals can completely strip the leaves and bark from shrubs. Valuable pasture species including saltbush and soft spinifex often fail to recover from such heavy grazing. These plants are then replaced by annuals and less valuable perennial species. In WA, feral goats browse on mulga which provides a drought reserve for sheep during summer. Overgrazing may also lead to massive soil erosion permanently reducing the carrying capacity of the rangeland. Disturbance by the sharp hooves of goats and the characteristic pawing of the ground by males exposes the soil to erosion by wind and rain.

In addition to their impact on the landscape, feral goats compete with native animals and domestic stock for shelter, water and food. Feral goats are susceptible to several exotic livestock diseases including foot and mouth disease, rabies and rinderpest. They would act as a reservoir of infection if the diseases reached Australia.

A number of control methods have been used to reduce feral goat numbers. These include shooting from the ground or helicopters, using Judas goats to locate herds, mustering and trapping. However mustering, trapping and helicopter shooting are the main methods used to remove feral goats. Helicopter shooting is particularly useful in removing goats in inaccessible areas.

Feral goat numbers are managed such that they are reduced to, or maintained at a level which ensures minimal environmental impact on the rangelands. Feral goat aerial surveys are conducted to monitor population numbers in the southern rangeland. Data results collected from these surveys and other sources are used to ensure landholders are aware of goat numbers. With this information pastoralists are encouraged to formulate management strategies to reduce and manage feral goats to minimise their impact.

Under the management policy, commercialisation of the feral goat resource is permitted under strict conditions. Pastoralists are able to muster and remove feral goats to abattoirs or export. A waybill in accordance with the Stock Identification and Movement Act must accompany all movements of goats. Mustered goats that are not removed or domesticated must be destroyed.

The process of domesticating feral goats involves training the animals to respect electric fences. Best Practice Management — a structured and consistent approach to the management of vertebrate pests in an attempt to achieve enduring and cost-effective outcomes. From an animal welfare perspective, it is highly desirable that pest control programs affect a minimum number of individuals and that effort is sustained so that pest densities always remain at a low level.

Over the last decade, the approach to managing pest animals has changed. Rather than focussing on killing as many pests as possible, it is now realised that like most other aspects of agriculture or nature conservation, pest management needs to be carefully planned and coordinated. Pest animal control is just one aspect of an integrated approach to the management of production and natural resource systems.

Most pests are highly mobile and can readily replace those that are killed in control programs. Unless actions are well planned and coordinated across an area, individual control programs are unlikely to have a lasting effect. Implementing effective and humane pest control programs requires a basic understanding of the ecology and biology of the targeted pest species and in some cases those species affected directly non-targets or indirectly prey species by a control program.

It is also essential to understand the impact created by the pest i. Managers should take the time to make themselves aware of such information by reading the recommended texts at the end of this code of practice. A brief summary follows. Goats arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in As they were small and hardy, ate a range of plants and provided milk and meat, they were convenient livestock for early European settlers.

During the 19th century, sailors released goats onto islands and some areas of the mainland for emergency food. Certain breeds were imported for their hair. More recently, goats have been used to keep plantation forests and inland pastoral land free of weeds.

Feral herds developed as these domestic goats escaped, were abandoned or were deliberately released. Feral goats now occur in all Australian states and on many offshore islands, but are most common in the rocky or hilly semi-arid areas of western New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. In , there were an estimated 2. Where dingos and wild dogs are present, feral goats generally do poorly. However, they are often found in sheep-grazing areas, where dingoes and wild dogs have been removed or heavily controlled by pastoralists.

Feral goats live in herds, and although males and females live separately for much of the year they share a home range of about one square kilometre under good conditions, but a larger area when food or water is scarce. The two groups only mix together during the breeding season in autumn and winter, with females becoming sexually mature in their first year.

Feral goats can breed twice a year, with twins and triplets being common. Feral goats are generalist herbivores and have a varied diet — leaves, twigs, bark, flowers, fruit and roots. They will eat most plant types in pastoral regions and often consume vegetation that is avoided by sheep or cattle. Feral goats have a major effect on native vegetation through soil damage and overgrazing of native herbs, grasses, shrubs and trees, which can cause erosion and prevent regeneration.

Particularly in the rangelands, they compete with domestic livestock for food. Such competition can become severe when food is limited during drought. They foul waterholes, and can spread weeds through seeds carried in their dung. Feral goats can also compete with native animals for food, water and shelter. For example, they may threaten some yellow-footed rock wallaby populations by competing for rock shelters and food, leaving the wallabies exposed to a greater risk of predation by foxes and wedge-tailed eagles.

Feral goats carry footrot, and it is difficult to cure sheep of this disease when there is reinfection through contact with feral goat populations. They could also carry exotic diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, should there be an outbreak in Australia.

Control of feral goats is a complex issue. While they are a major environmental and agricultural pest, they are seen by some to have commercial value, and are also used as a game species by recreational hunters. Feral goat populations tend to recover well from culling and, except on islands, eradication is usually impossible.

To protect the environment, control is best focused on areas that contain threatened native plants, animals and communities. There are many ways of managing goats, but the challenge is to combine them in an integrated strategy to achieve the desired resource impact outcome.

Ideally, strategies should be based on reliable, quantitative information about the damage caused by goats, the cost of control and the effect of implementing control on damage levels. There are three essential requirements for a pest control technique — necessity, effectiveness and humaneness. The best strategy is to develop a plan which maximizes the effect of control operations and reduces the need to cull large numbers of animals on a regular basis.

Feral goat control techniques have the potential to cause animals to suffer. This will be the technique that causes the least amount of pain and suffering to the target animal with the least harm or risk to non-target animals, people and the environment. The technique should also be effective in the situation where it will be used e. It is also important to remember that the humaneness of a technique is highly dependant on whether or not it is correctly employed. In selecting techniques it is therefore important to consider whether sufficient resources are available to fully implement that technique.

Cooperative action is recognised as essential in pest management for many reasons. As with many other animal pests, feral goats can be mobile with large home ranges in arid areas.

Group schemes allow better management of pests that easily cross tenure boundaries by providing for broad-scale, synchronised actions to minimise reinfestation problems.

Economies of scale are inherent if joint action is taken by landowners, and groups also facilitate peer pressure on those unconvinced of the need for management. The most commonly used feral goat control techniques are mustering, trapping at water, aerial shooting, ground shooting and exclusion fencing. Other measures such as poisoning with have been trialed but are not registered for use in Australia due to a number of reasons including the significant risk of poisoning non-target species.

Mustering and trapping are used in cases where goats are intended for commercial slaughter. But mustering and trapping become uneconomic once populations are reduced to densities of about one goat per square kilometre. Management of these low density herds, those in rough or densely vegetated areas, or of remnant or colonising herds, relies on lethal techniques such as aerial or ground shooting, or trapping and on-site slaughter.

The use of Judas goats can improve the efficiency of some of these latter control techniques. Cost-effectiveness, humaneness and efficacy for each control technique are useful in deciding the most appropriate strategy. A brief evaluation of the humaneness of control techniques follows:. The use of exclusion fencing is generally regarded as a humane, non-lethal alternative to lethal control methods. However, fencing of large areas is expensive to construct and maintain and is eventually breached by feral goats.

Fences can be of limited use in feral goat control by restricting access to sensitive areas, and excluding goats from some water points to concentrate them at others where they can be trapped.

They have also been used to break up large areas into manageable blocks during eradication programs. Fences should be constructed using material that minimises the risk of goats getting entangled especially their head. Exclusion fencing can have negative effects on non-target species by restricting access to natural watering points, altering dispersion and foraging patterns, and causing entanglement and electrocution. It can also create a significant hazard to wildlife in the event of a bushfire.

Capture, handling and restraint of goats for use as Judas animals can cause anxiety and sometimes pain or injury if they struggle to escape.

Repeatedly being isolated and having to find other goats may cause fear and anxiety as goats are highly social animals. Tracking and the nearby shooting of cohorts may also be another source of distress. The collar must be properly fitted for the comfort and safety of the animal. It should fit snugly enough to prevent it from coming off or chafing the neck, but it must also be sufficiently loose as to be comfortable and not interfere with swallowing or panting.

Efforts should be made to reduce the possibility of the collar getting caught up in vegetation. Shooting can be a humane method of destroying feral goats when it is carried out by experienced, skilled and responsible shooters; the animal can be clearly seen and is within range; and with the use of correct firearm, ammunition and shot placement. Wounded animals must be located and killed as quickly and humanely as possible.

If lactating females are shot, reasonable efforts should be made to find dependent kids and kill them quickly and humanely. Aerial shooting of feral goats from a helicopter can be a humane control method when it is carried out by highly skilled and experienced shooters and pilots; the correct firearm, ammunition and shot placement is used; and wounded animals are promptly located and killed.

Follow-up procedures are essential to ensure that all wounded animals are killed. With aerial shooting, chest shots are preferred as the heart and lungs are the largest vital area and an accurate shot is more achievable particularly within the range of unusual angles encountered when shooting from above.

Although death from a chest shot may be more certain, compared to an accurate head shot, a shot to the chest does not render the animal instantaneously insensible and time to death is slower.

To minimise the possibility of starvation and stress, all traps must be inspected at least once daily. Goats must be provided with water at all times and appropriate feed should be made available if captured goats with kids at foot are to be held for more than 24 hours. Feed should be provided for non-breeding goats if held for more than 48 hours. More frequent checking may be necessary during extreme weather conditions.

Traps should be constructed to provide goats with shade and shelter and should be large enough to avoid overcrowding. Capture and handling should be avoided when females are kidding or have young at foot.