Pest Animals
Introduced animals that have established in the wild, and now compete with, prey on or displace the native species our landscape depends on.
Pest animals in our area
Detailed guides for identifying, monitoring and managing each species. Scroll on for what pest animals are and the damage they cause.
European Wasp
Feral Cats
Feral Deer
Indian (Common) Myna
Guides for the remaining species are in preparation. In the meantime, the Northern Yarra Landcare Network has information on several of them.
What makes an animal a pest?
A pest animal is an introduced species that has established a self-sustaining population in the wild and causes harm — to native plants and animals, to farm production, to waterways, or to human health and safety. Most arrived deliberately, brought out for hunting, farming, pets or sport, and either escaped or were released.
What makes them so damaging here is the absence of the checks that kept them in balance where they evolved. Australia has no natural predators for most of them, no diseases adapted to control them, and native species that never evolved defences against them. A population can expand for decades before anyone treats it as a problem — and by then, control is far harder and far more expensive than it would have been early on.
They also don't respect property boundaries. An animal that ranges across hundreds or thousands of hectares can't be managed one block at a time, which is why coordinated action across neighbouring properties consistently outperforms individual effort.
The damage they do
The effects compound across the landscape, and rarely stay on one property.
Native plants and habitat
Grazing and browsing strip out preferred species and change the make-up of plant communities. Regenerating bush and new plantings are hit hardest, undoing years of revegetation work in a single season.
Native animals
Introduced predators take native birds, reptiles and small mammals directly. Others compete for food, nesting hollows and territory, displacing species that have nowhere else to go.
Farm production
Lost pasture and crops, damaged fences and infrastructure, and livestock losses. Some landholders end up reducing stock numbers to compensate for what pests are taking.
Disease and biosecurity
Pest animals move long distances and carry disease, parasites and weed seed with them. Wild populations are a recognised reservoir risk for diseases that would be devastating to Australian agriculture.
Soil and water
Trampling, digging and wallowing compact soil, break down creek banks and drive erosion. Waterways lose vegetation cover and water quality declines for everyone downstream.
Safety and amenity
Collisions on rural roads, damage to reserves and walking tracks, and harm to culturally significant sites and the general amenity of bushland the community uses.
Report what you see
Recorded sightings are the evidence base that decides where control effort and funding go.
FeralScan is a free national recording tool covering deer, foxes, rabbits, feral cats, wild dogs, pigs, mynas and more. It works on a computer or as a phone app, your records stay private to you and any group you join, and everything you log builds a shared picture of where pest animals are and what they're doing.
Under-reporting in an area can make it look like there isn't a problem there. Even a single record helps.
Working together: Steels Creek Landcare encourages neighbours to coordinate on shared problems like pest animals, weeds and erosion. If you'd like to talk to someone locally, get in touch or join the group.
