❓ Dr. Jacobs inquires about the Western Shield program's effectiveness in the Esperance region. The Minister provides an update highlighting its impact on reducing fox numbers and ongoing efforts to control feral cats and protect endangered species.
AnsweredQoN 756Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WESTERN
SHIELD PROGRAM
756. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the
Minister for Environment:
I have noticed advertisements in regional papers about fox
baiting under the Western Shield program. Will the Minister for Environment
provide an update on the Western Shield program and its effectiveness in the
Esperance region in particular?
SHIELD PROGRAM
756. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the
Minister for Environment:
I have noticed advertisements in regional papers about fox
baiting under the Western Shield program. Will the Minister for Environment
provide an update on the Western Shield program and its effectiveness in the
Esperance region in particular?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Eyre for the question. Western Shield
is the Department of Parks and Wildlife's award-winning wildlife
recovery program, which aims to reduce the threat of predation by introduced
pests, in particular the European fox and feral cats, and their effect on
native animals such as the critically endangered western ground parrot and WA's
fauna emblem, the numbat. That program has been carried out on around 3.9 million
hectares of conservation land throughout the state, and has already been shown
to have had a significant impact on reducing fox numbers. Indeed, this program
was credited with the delisting of the woylie in the late 1990s. However, as
fox numbers have gone down, cat numbers have gone up, and we are obviously
retooling our Western Shield program to affect both those species. A key
component of this program revolves around our baiting program that is built on
the back of 1080 poison, which was a very fortunate discovery here in Western
Australia. That selective bait targets only introduced species and does not
affect native Western Australian fauna. In the Esperance region in particular,
baiting is carried out regularly in Cape Arid, Cape Le Grand, Stokes and
Fitzgerald River National Parks, as well as some other parks within that
general area. However, it is not just about baiting. This program also involves
a range of other activities, including the monitoring of threatened native
animals and the extensive translocation of endangered animals to areas that
they had previously occupied, because we successfully baited that area from
which they had been predated. This program also involves extensive native
wildlife breeding programs that I will touch on in a moment.
More recently, the department has commenced trials to control
feral cats at Cape Arid and Fitzgerald River National Parks as a part of our
integrated fauna recovery project. Indeed, our monitoring has suggested that
these introduced predators are in lower numbers—in some instances in
significantly lower numbers—in baited areas, and that many of our
threatened native animals are surviving and their populations are coming back
as a result of these baiting programs. The south coast region is, of course,
home to the one of the most critically endangered Western Australian species—the
western ground parrot. While this species remains on the absolute brink,
efforts such as our Western Shield program are an essential component of trying
to sustain a population in the wild. Through Western Shield we are not just
working on keeping a population going in the wild; we have also been looking to
establish a successful breeding program at Perth Zoo, which recently informed
me it has been observing breeding activity. That is certainly good news, and I
hope it leads to hatchlings. I look forward to updating the house as this
program advances.
is the Department of Parks and Wildlife's award-winning wildlife
recovery program, which aims to reduce the threat of predation by introduced
pests, in particular the European fox and feral cats, and their effect on
native animals such as the critically endangered western ground parrot and WA's
fauna emblem, the numbat. That program has been carried out on around 3.9 million
hectares of conservation land throughout the state, and has already been shown
to have had a significant impact on reducing fox numbers. Indeed, this program
was credited with the delisting of the woylie in the late 1990s. However, as
fox numbers have gone down, cat numbers have gone up, and we are obviously
retooling our Western Shield program to affect both those species. A key
component of this program revolves around our baiting program that is built on
the back of 1080 poison, which was a very fortunate discovery here in Western
Australia. That selective bait targets only introduced species and does not
affect native Western Australian fauna. In the Esperance region in particular,
baiting is carried out regularly in Cape Arid, Cape Le Grand, Stokes and
Fitzgerald River National Parks, as well as some other parks within that
general area. However, it is not just about baiting. This program also involves
a range of other activities, including the monitoring of threatened native
animals and the extensive translocation of endangered animals to areas that
they had previously occupied, because we successfully baited that area from
which they had been predated. This program also involves extensive native
wildlife breeding programs that I will touch on in a moment.
More recently, the department has commenced trials to control
feral cats at Cape Arid and Fitzgerald River National Parks as a part of our
integrated fauna recovery project. Indeed, our monitoring has suggested that
these introduced predators are in lower numbers—in some instances in
significantly lower numbers—in baited areas, and that many of our
threatened native animals are surviving and their populations are coming back
as a result of these baiting programs. The south coast region is, of course,
home to the one of the most critically endangered Western Australian species—the
western ground parrot. While this species remains on the absolute brink,
efforts such as our Western Shield program are an essential component of trying
to sustain a population in the wild. Through Western Shield we are not just
working on keeping a population going in the wild; we have also been looking to
establish a successful breeding program at Perth Zoo, which recently informed
me it has been observing breeding activity. That is certainly good news, and I
hope it leads to hatchlings. I look forward to updating the house as this
program advances.
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