Invasive Animals CRC home

Welcome to the Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre: Australia’s largest integrated invasive animal research program.

The Invasive Animals CRC creates new technologies and integrated strategies to reduce the impact of invasive animals on Australia’s economy, environment, and people. We concentrate on developing smarter tools to prevent and detect new invasions, advanced and tactical tools to strengthen integrated management strategies of carp and other pest fish, and new tools and integrated management strategies for major pests including foxes, wild dogs, feral pigs, rats and mice, cane toads, feral cats and rabbits.

[more]

	Rabbits - are considered the biggest problem (in economic terms), estimated to cause about $200 million damage a year. [more]
	Feral pigs - occupy close to 40% of mainland Australia and are the next most damaging animal to our agricultural industries. [more]
	Foxes - are a huge problem. The economic and environmental impact of this species is greater than any other introduced vertebrate. [more]
	Invasive fish - presently, there are estimated to be up to 34 established pest fish species on mainland Australia. Carp can constitute 90% of the fish biomass in some areas, and cause significant damage to aquatic habitats. [more]
	Wild dogs - Australia has a significant problem with wild dogs, which are estimated to cost around $66M a year to agriculture, primarily by killing lambs and calves. [more]
	[more invasive animals]

Hot Topics and News

May is RabbitScan month!

RabbitScan is a world-first 'rabbit census', using a community-based approach with Google Maps technology.

We urge landholders, groups, schools, industry, business and government to participate.

RabbitScan month starts on May 1 with a target of 5000 sites across Australia.

Visit [ http://www.rabbitscan.net.au/ ] today to register and for more information.

Ferals in the classroom

Feral Focus, an online education resource for high school teachers, is now available.

The site provides curriculum based activities which address the complexities of dealing with pest animals in Australia.

[ Visit Feral Focus ]

Foxes identified from scats collected across Tasmania

Eight individual foxes have been identified from genotyping of scats collected in Tasmania.

Five different males and 2 female foxes have been identified with 1 sample requiring further testing to determine the sex.

Dietary analysis of fox positive scats identified over 10 different animal species including ringtail & brushtail possums, eastern barred bandicoots, wallabies, mice and sheep.

[ Click here to read more - Fox Eradication Program website ]
[ Click here to go to the Tasmanian demonstration site page - IA CRC website ]

Australia named as one of the world's six hot spots for invasive fish invasions

A research paper published in the online journal PLoS Biology has identified Australia as being in the top six sites where 'more than a quarter of the species of freshwater fish are non-native'. [ Click here ] to read more.

Tilapia spread assisted by deliberate releases

There has been recent press on deliberate releases of aquarium fish into Australia's waterways, with the result that fast breeders like Tilapia have quickly become established in some parts of the country. Read press.

[ Read our tilapia web page ].

Are rabbits developing resistance to calicivirus?

The short answer is yes! Australia's leading expert on the biological control agency and CRC researcher Dr Brian Cooke has reviewed the evidence and has found that some populations are showing high levels of resistance to the disease. [ Read media release].

[ More on the RHD genetic resistance project ]

Latest media release

document media release - New law creates springboard for feral animal problems - 18 June 2009
The new NSW Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill 2009 runs the risk of increasing Australia’s feral animal populations. [pdf 111.7 kb]

Latest publications

Workshop proceedings: Risk assessment processes for import and keeping exotic vertebrates in Australia (Henderson 2009)’. Proceedings of a national workshop held 25-26 February 2009.

The IA CRC has published a report titled 'Assessing the social impact of invasive animals in Australia', prepared by Gerard Fitzgerald and Roger Wilkinson.