Townsville doesn’t have peri-urban wild dogs; it has an urban population.
The outcomes of a Department of Agriculture peri-urban wild dog GPS collaring project conducted on the city’s landmark Castle Hill were presented at Queensland’s fifth pest animal symposium in Townsville last week.
Townsville City Council Land Protection Officer Melissa Green said they had opted for a proactive approach to managing their wild dog impacts following a significant increase in reports and publicised impacts of wild dogs in 2012 and 2013.
“We learnt a lot about them,” she said. “ Castle Hill can support wild dogs all year round.”
She said most of their time was spent 50m from people and houses and that they easily traversed roads, yards, drains and construction areas, and that they preferred to stay away from people.
“We also learnt how valuable community was,” Melissa said. “We needed to talk to a lot of people and get them on board.
“We have one person who pre-feeds dogs for us and allows us to set traps close to his back gate.
“We also learnt that incidents might not be caused by the closest pack.”
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
