Korcz recognised for feral pig eradication with award

The National Biosecurity Forum was held on Tuesday night in Canberra, with the Australian Biosecurity Award providing great recognition for the efforts to eradicate feral pigs, Mr Korcz said.

"It's a great acknowledgement of the team at Kangaroo Island and everything they've achieved to date, between the Department of Primary Industries and also the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board and National Parks and Wildlife Service," he said.

In 2017, local farms and natural environments across KI experienced damages estimated at $1 million, with Mr Korcz saying the feral pigs remain a significant threat to Kangaroo Island.

"You've got farmers getting their paddocks dug up every night and damage to farming infrastructure, like dams and fences," he said.

A number of species have already been eradicated on KI and Mr Korcz says he hopes to soon add feral pigs to the list.

"KI being as big as it is, already has no rabbits, no foxes, goats and deer as they've already been eradicated," he said.

"Putting pigs on that list, potentially protects any biosecurity threats coming in the future.

"We've estimated feral pigs impact KI $1 million annually - once they're eradicated those costs are completely gone."

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The 2019 bushfires played a significant part in the removal of feral pigs from KI, Mr Korcz said.

"The bushfires did the heavy lifting for us, it was estimated there were 10,000 pigs before the fire and those bushfires wiped out 90 per cent of those pigs and we're just here to finish the job," he said.

"For all those landowners out west, the last thing on their mind is feral pig control and for us to come in behind the scenes and get the job done, while they're rebuilding their lives and rebuilding their homes is a fantastic outcome for the KI community."

In the next couple of months, Mr Korcz said he and his team would be dedicated to tracking down the final five feral pigs, using the thermal-aerial culling strategy, which they have used four times before.

"We'll be flying over the entire west half of the island for 2.5 months straight, with two helicopters this time and twice the intensity to not only nail those last five pigs, but to also transition to prove there's none there," he said.

Another strategy that will be used to kill the five remaining feral pigs is the artificial intelligent camera network, Mr Korcz said.

"We have over 300 cameras here that are plugged across the western half of KI and they run 24/7," he said.

"They take a picture, it goes to a software online and the software figures out what's in the area.

"If it's a kangaroo, a possum, or a pig, it filters that and lets us know what it is and if the sensor thinks it's a pig it automatically alerts all below ground staff immediately."

Along with overwhelming support from the KI community, Mr Korcz said he and his team had received funding from the state government to try and get rid of the five remaining feral pigs by June 2023.

"A lot of our funding came off the back of the bushfires and the disaster early funding arrangements, because it's a post-bushfire project and really the only silver lining of those bushfires was the chance to eradicate feral pigs," he said.

"The state government's been really fantastic coming to the table and they're keen just to push us a little bit further and make sure our monitoring is extended 12 months."