THE JUDAS PIG TECHNIQUE - A METHOD THAT COULD ENHANCE CONTROL PROGRAMS AGAINST FERAL PIGS, SUS SCROFA

The successful 'Judas' goat technique has been adapted for use with fe ral pigs. The 'Judas' goat technique involves releasing radio-collared goats into a control area and, after a sufficient period to allow the m to join other goats, tracking them down and culling the other indivi duals associated with them. Trials with the technique on feral pigs in Namadgi National Park, ACT, indicated that it worked best with sows c aptured in the same area. Each of these sows established contact with 1-8 other pigs in the area within 1-7 days of release and was located with at least one other pig on 67-100% of occasions. Tn contrast, sows and boars from outside the study area took longer to come into contac t with ''local'' pigs and associated with them much less frequently. A subsequent control exercise in Namadgi, using 'Judas' pigs to indicat e where to lay warfarin baits from a helicopter, resulted in a 75% red uction in the low-density population still present after a larger cont rol exercise two years earlier. Since then, the technique has been use d to eradicate a small colony of feral pigs in central Australia and i s proving successful for control of feral pigs and other ungulates in other parts of Australia and New Zealand.