Migration of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) in rainforests of north Queensland: fact or fiction?

Mitchell, Justin; Dorney, W.; Mayer, Robert J.; Mcilroy, JC

doi:10.1071/wr06066

Cited by 22 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…A number of home range analyses have found that feral pigs are relatively sedentary for their size and occupy well-defined home ranges. There were consistent gender-specific and seasonal differences in home range movements (Caley 1997;Dexter 1999;Mitchell et al 2009). Dexter (1999) found that female home ranges decreased significantly under drought conditions.…”

Section: Resource Selection and Home Range Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, a large number of field studies have empirically investigated local habitat use and population densities in response to a range of environmental and biotic factors, often dynamically across seasons or years (Hone 1990a;Caley 1993Caley & 1997Corbett 1995;Choquenot 1998;Mitchell 2002;Choquenot & Ruscoe 2003;Mitchell et al 2009). For example, Caley (1993) and Hone (1990a) showed that feral pig distribution and abundance varies considerably between seasons and habitat types of varying productivity.…”

Section: Distribution and Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…can access required resources at different locations in the landscape, and sedentary, i.e. restrict their resource-seeking movements to defined home ranges (Caley 1997;Dexter 1999;Mitchell et al 2009). The results from this study indicate that spatial pattern suitability analysis can usefully capture feral pigs' resource selection within home ranges and allow for improved predictions of habitat suitability.…”

Section: Ecological Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Australia, invasive feral pigs are a major threat to unique ecosystems and agricultural industries (Bengsen et al 2014; Department of the Environment 2015). They are most widespread in the tropical north, yet spatial knowledge is either empirical, detailed, and local scale (Hone 1990a;Caley 1993 andMitchell 2002;Mitchell et al 2009;Wurster et al 2012;Elledge et al 2013), or expert-based, coarse, broad scale, and poorly validated (Wilson et al 1992;West 2008; Department of Agriculture and Fisheries 2015). Improved regional-scale knowledge of feral pig distribution could be used to delineate management units and limit re-invasion of conservation sites following local eradication (Bengsen et al 2014;Dexter & McLeod 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Home range analyses have found movements to be limited by the seasonal availability of these resource requirements, especially in breeding herds of related sows and their young (Caley 1997;Dexter 1999;Mitchell et al 2009). Female home range sizes ranged widely (1-20 km 2 -Hone 2012; Choquenot et al 1996), but possible effects of landscape structure remain unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling seasonal habitat suitability and connectivity for feral pigs in northern Australia: towards risk-based management of infectious animal diseases with wildlife hosts

Froese¹

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Infectious animal diseases are a major biosecurity threat in an increasingly connected world.Wildlife hosts are a well-recognized risk factor for disease introduction, establishment and spread.Northern Australia is vulnerable to disease incursions from neighbouring countries, and widespread invasive feral pigs (Sus scrofa) can seriously complicate post-border disease management. The aim of this thesis was to generate new regional-scale spatial knowledge of feral pig populations in northern Australia to inform risk-based management of directly transmitted infectious animal diseases for which feral pigs are a host.Due to environmental variability and empirical knowledge gaps across this vast region, I adopted a resource-based modelling approach, based on expert knowledge but rooted in landscape ecological theory, to answer three research questions at multiple levels of biological organisation.Specifically, I conceptualized feral pigs in northern Australia as a metapopulation and the landscape as displaying a patch-corridor-matrix structure. At the level of individual feral pig breeding herds, I explored the selection of supplementary and complementary resources within home ranges. At the level of local subpopulations, consisting of several herds with adjacent or overlapping home ranges, I used a habitat suitability modelling approach to investigate the distribution of potential patches of breeding habitat emerging from the interactions between resources and home range movements. At the metapopulation level, I examined potential dispersal pathways between many such patches using a habitat connectivity modelling approach. As feral pig movements and distributional patterns vary with conditions, I applied models to two seasonal scenarios (wet and dry) corresponding to northern Australia's annual rainfall cycle.This thesis contributed methodological advances and new ecological insights. I developed a novel combined methodology, spatial pattern suitability analysis, for capturing feral pigs' resourceseeking home range movements based on expert-elicited response-to-pattern curves and spatial moving window analysis. Based on landscape ecological principles, this methodology improves the application of resource-based Bayesian networks models to mobile animals. I found that habitat suitability for persistent feral pig breeding in northern Australia is dependent on spatial interactions between four key habitat requirements: water and food resources as well as protection from heat and from disturbance. Through scenario analysis and empirical validation I showed that habitat suitability at the regional scale is most reliably modelled as a function of distance to supplementary and complementary resource patches. When applied to a wet season and a dry season scenario, mapped model results indicated that the spatial distribution of feral pig habitat patches varied markedly. Importantly, empirically validated findings suggest that dry season conditions restrict overall habitat suitability for feral pig breeding in northern...

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Section: Resource Selection and Home Range Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Distribution and Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ecological Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling seasonal habitat suitability and connectivity for feral pigs in northern Australia: towards risk-based management of infectious animal diseases with wildlife hosts

Froese¹

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References

2012

Applied Population and Community Ecology: The Case of Feral Pigs in Australia

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Multiscale landscape genetic analysis identifies major waterways as a barrier to dispersal of feral pigs in north Queensland, Australia

Ryan,

Prentis,

Fuller

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are a destructive and widespread invasive pest in Australia. An understanding of feral pig movement is required to develop management strategies to control feral pigs in Australia. Because landscape structure can have a strong influence on animal movement, it is important to determine how landscape features facilitate or impede the movement of feral pigs. Consequently, we conducted a landscape genetic analysis of feral pig populations in the Herbert region of far north Queensland, Australia, to determine management units and provide recommendations to better inform feral pig population control strategies. Using microsatellite data obtained from 256 feral pig samples from 44 sites, we examined feral pig population structure at multiple spatial scales for univariate and multivariate landscape resistance surfaces to determine the optimal spatial scale and to identify which of the nine landscape features tested impede or facilitate feral pig gene flow. Only weak genetic structure was found among the 44 sampling sites, but major waterways were identified as a minor barrier to gene flow, and an isolation by distance model was supported. We also found that highways facilitated gene flow across the study area, and this suggests that they may act as movement corridors or indicate translocation of feral pigs. Additionally, incorporating a second spatial scale enhanced the ability of our landscape genetics analysis to detect the influence of landscape structure on gene flow. We identified three management units based on natural barriers to gene flow and future targeted control should be undertaken in these management units to deliver sustained reduction of feral pig populations in the Herbert region. This study demonstrates how a landscape genetic approach can be used to gain insight into the ecology of an invasive pest species and be used to develop population control strategies which utilise natural barriers to movement.

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Migration of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) in rainforests of north Queensland: fact or fiction?

Cited by 22 publications

References 23 publications

Modelling seasonal habitat suitability and connectivity for feral pigs in northern Australia: towards risk-based management of infectious animal diseases with wildlife hosts

Modelling seasonal habitat suitability and connectivity for feral pigs in northern Australia: towards risk-based management of infectious animal diseases with wildlife hosts

References

Multiscale landscape genetic analysis identifies major waterways as a barrier to dispersal of feral pigs in north Queensland, Australia

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