Collaring wild dogs in southern NSW

Two monitoring programs, in the Murray and Riverina Local Land Services (LLS), would use GPS collars to track dog movements in an effort to boost knowledge of dog behaviour and develop more effective control programs.

Local dog control groups have been consulted on the monitoring programs, which would see dogs trapped then fitted with a collar and released back into the wild.

The control groups are yet to sign off on the issue, but LLS managers are optimistic local landholders will back the initiative, which would see them follow the lead of their northern counterparts.

Department of Primary Industries senior research scientist in vertebrate pests Peter Fleming said since 2007 about 150 dogs have been collared in northern NSW.

The plan for southern NSW is to start small, with an initial deployment of collars on 10 dogs each in the Murray and Riverina LLS, for a period of 12 months.

Riverina LLS biosecurity manager Ray Willis hopes collaring dogs will reveal when and where dogs travelled around the region, which in turn will lead to more effective baiting and trapping in the district.

“We are not pretending to be experts and know where all the dogs are running, so we need to be able to track them through the landscape,” he said.

“The monitoring should tell us how the dogs interact between the national parks in the area and private land.”

Mr Willis said Riverina LLS, unlike many other districts, does not use aerial baiting in the mix of its control measures.

“We use ground baiting and trapping. We find it is cost prohibitive to do aerial baiting.”

Mr Willis said there are two local wild dog control groups, supported by LLS, National Parks and a contracted team of trappers working the district. They aim to set baits and lay traps in known hotspots before dog activity flares.

“Our focus is proactive ground baiting, followed proactive trapping. Doing this knocks out the foxes, so trappers' time is not taken up by that and can focus on dogs.”

Murray LLS biosecurity manager Geoff Corboy said dog activity is most prevalent in the east of his district.

“We want to see if there is any pattern in wild dogs' movement in that area. If there is we can target control programs accordingly,” he said.

Mr Corboy is involved in a new initiative, championed by the new National Wild Dogs Strategy, to encourage cross border management.

He has teamed up with land managers in rugged bushland that extends south of the border with Victoria.

“In those areas the dogs don’t care if they are in Victoria or NSW,” he said.

“They don’t always have to jump the Murray River, but they may well cross at points of low water anyway.

“We have invested in remote sensor cameras to look at where the dogs move through, to find out if they’re moving into NSW through National Parks, private land or forest and so on.”

Mr Willis said while these new initiatives could boost control programs in the future, the need for landholder input was not diminished.

“It’s everyone’s responsibility. Everyone should be involved. We all still have that responsibility under legislation.

“Unfortunately, I’m sure there are plenty of landholders that don’t have sheep or aren't producers that don’t think it is their problem.”

Riverina LLS runs a telephone hotline for reporting any news of wild dog activity, 1800 625 775.