There are calls for a bounty to be introduced across Australia in the hope of encouraging more professional and recreational hunters to hunt feral pigs.
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The calls come after a recent study by the University of Queensland found that wild pigs are most likely currently uprooting an area of around 36,000 to 124,000 square kilometres, in environments where they are not native.
Shane Knuth, an avid hunter and Katter Australia Party Member for the seat of Hill, has been calling on all sides of politics to address the growing feral pig problem across northern Australia by funding local councils to roll out bounty programs to deal with feral pigs.
As well as eating cassowary eggs, Mr Knuth noted the pigs also "dig up turtle eggs [and] cause massive destruction to our native flora and fauna".
"At the same time, we are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in crop damage.
"It's estimated there are over 24 million feral pigs in Australia; there's almost more pigs than people."
Mr Knuth believes a bounty program where hunters would be paid for animals that they killed is just one way to address the feral pig problem in Australia.
"There's very little money available for aerial shooting or to help farmers, so a bounty would be a significant way to encourage recreational hunters who currently spend their own money on fuel and hunting expenses," he said.
"We would need input from both state and federal governments."
Mr Knuth admits measures would be required to prevent untrained shooters trespassing onto private properties.
"There would need to be an induction and registration system with local councils," he said.
"There would also need to be a permit system for hunters to be able to access national parks, that would also help bring the pig numbers down."
By the numbers
A 2021 study from the University of Queensland (UQ) revealed that the environmental threat from feral pigs is greater than previously thought.
According to the study, "by uprooting carbon trapped in soil, wild pigs are releasing around 4.9 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually across the globe, the equivalent of 1.1 million cars."
UQ's Christopher O'Bryan says the globe's ever-expanding population of feral pigs could pose a significant threat to the climate.
"Wild pigs are just like tractors ploughing through fields, turning over soil to find food," he said.
"When soils are disturbed from humans ploughing a field or, in this case, from wild animals uprooting, carbon is released into the atmosphere.
"Since soil contains nearly three times as much carbon than in the atmosphere, even a small fraction of carbon emitted from soil has the potential to accelerate climate change."
Bounty rolled out
Gympie Regional Council (GRC) has been paying recreational hunters $10 for dead pig snouts and feral dog scalps for the past four years.
The GRC's manager of environment and resource recovery, Alex Stengl, said that the program was rolled out in 2019 along with a wild dog bounty due to concerns from the local community.
"We have clear guidelines about how we will receive scalps and snouts," she said.
"After people have done their shooting or control, they can bring those (snouts and scalps) into council and then we provide payment.
"We have a very large local government area that includes some very extensive properties and getting council resources across that landscape can be difficult.
"This is another tool to encourage residents and property owners to be proactive in this space."
Figures obtained from the GRC show that approximately $20,000 worth of bounties are paid out per annum with 1,325 pig snouts handed in for the 2021-22 season, up from the previous year's total of 590 snouts.
Ongoing damage
Luke Russo, a third-generation sugar farmer near Innisfail, worries the pig problem is slowly getting worse.
"The pigs like the sugar cane because it's sweet; they just come through and graze and the damage that the pigs do it really disappointing," he said.
"With baiting we have to be careful of our neighbours' animals and pets and also of native animals."
Mr Russo also believes a bounty could encourage people to take up pig hunting, but that it needed to be policed.
"We need to get it happening and we need to make it happen now," he said.
"We need to have some sort or registration, if you want to hunt pigs, you need to be registered.
"If you kill a pig, you take it to a place to get paid; without the registration you can't get paid, and it needs to be policed.
"As farmers we can only sustain this for so long until we all walk away."
Manger of Innisfail's Tropicana Bananas farm Chris Rummery says it isn't just crop destruction costing his business money.
"It's an environmental hazard the way they disturb the soil and also destroy the roots of the banana trees and then there's the issue of irrigation; they get into the farm and destroy the irrigation system," he said.
"The pigs will just push the sprinkler system over; I have someone on staff who goes through the banana rows everyday just to fix the sprinklers which is costing me over $1,000 per week.
"The amount of lost plants and fruit is immeasurable."
