Aerial baiting:
Aerial baiting was largely developed to achieve cost effective and widespread preventative control, to enable baiting in otherwise inaccessible areas, and to assist in creating buffers to prevent the movement of wild dogs into stocked areas.
Adopting aerial baiting as the single tool to solve all wild dog problems is not a good strategy.
For example, aerial baiting is sometimes used over accessible areas where baits could be laid more effectively from the ground. There are many examples of where properly directed and conducted aerial baiting has been and continues to be very effective.
There are also examples of where aerial baiting has not been so effective. In the large, regional baiting campaigns, fixed wing aircraft such as a Cessna 206 are generally used. These fly at a height of about 100 metres.
Aircraft are fitted with hoppers and bait chutes, and the navigator directs a person acting as a ‘bombardier’ as to when and how many baits should be dropped.
The path followed by the baiting aircraft is automatically logged into an onboard GPS, to ensure that accurate records are made of baiting operations. Sensors are incorporated into the bait chute and data are linked to the GPS, logging the location and number of baits dropped. This allows for review of baiting campaigns and helps with future planning.
Ground baiting:
Fewer baits are required for ground-based baiting than for a equivalent aerial baiting program, possibly in the order of one ground bait to five aerial baits. Ground baits can be carefully placed where they are most likely to be found by a wild dog, and not trampled by cattle or dropped into water.
If non-target animals such as birds are at risk, baits can be buried or hidden among leaves or bushes. A lure, such as a decomposing carcass, can be used to attract wild dogs into an area where baits have been placed.
Hand-placed baits can also be more easily monitored for ‘take’ by wild dogs. Reliance on any type of baiting should be reduced when food supply is very high, and where wild dogs are already in sheep paddocks, because baiting is likely to be less effective in these circumstances.
Poison used in baits:
1080 is now the only poison registered for use in baits for wild dogs in Western Australia, and strict regulations govern its use. Trained landholders can purchase bait products containing 1080 after they have obtained Baiting Approval from an authorised officer of the Department of Agriculture and Food.
1080 has many advantages over other toxins such as strychnine. Compared with many native species, canids such as dogs and foxes are particularly sensitive to 1080. This makes baiting with 1080 more target-specific than with other types of poison.
In addition, the water solubility of 1080 means the toxin is eventually leached out of uneaten baits by rain, reducing any lasting potential hazard posed by the baits. Additionally, 1080 is broken down into harmless by-products by microorganisms, eliminating any potential for long-term environmental contamination.
Why can’t strychnine be used to bait wild dogs?
Some calls have been made to allow strychnine to be available for bait making, principally to make carcass baits. Strychnine has been banned as a pesticide in many Australian states and other countries because it is considered an inhumane poison. Carcass baiting with strychnine is non-selective, and would kill many native animals.
The return of strychnine for wild dog baiting cannot be justified and would not be compatible with the responsible use of poisons by landholders. There is also a risk that strychnine could be lost as a poison to use on trap jaws.
This apparent anomaly, that strychnine is still used on traps, is argued on the grounds that a trapped dog would suffer longer and die a crueller death if left in an unpoisoned trap. The use of poison on the trap is also the reason that unpadded traps can still be used for wild dog control in Western Australia.
If carcasses are seen as desirable food for a wild dog, there is no reason why they can’t be used as lures, with hand-placed 1080 baits scattered nearby.
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