Feral pigs & deer in the Otways

This project was part of the Wild Otways Initiative. For the full article, please visit our Feral pigs & deer project overview.

Feral pigs in the Otways

Feral pigs have been sighted in the Otways for decades; however, since 2017, a marked increase in feral pig activity had been observed, including both sightings and damage to farms and public land. The presence of feral pigs in the Otways poses a real threat to these ecosystems and the threatened species that called the Otways home. However, as they were an emerging threat, we didn’t have a good understanding of how widespread they were, and how they were using the ecosystems in the Otways.

Feral deer in the Otways

Unlike feral pigs, which are an emerging pest, feral deer populations are quite well established in the Otways and deer cause significant destruction to native vegetation, waterways and the habitat of many threatened species. Red Deer are common in the central wet forests, and Fallow Deer tended to occur in the east and west, which are predominantly drier landscapes. During the monitoring undertaken as part of the Wild Otways Initiative, the Conservation Ecology Centre received reports of both Hog and Sambar Deer in the Otways – a first in the region.

Our main focus in this project was developing ongoing and sustainable ways of managing the number of deer in the Otways to minimise the impact on native ecosystems.