REPORTS of wild dog sightings have increased on the vast rangelands of the Nullarbor Goldfields region.
Goldfields Nullarbor Rangelands Biosecurity Association (GNRBA) chief executive officer Michelle Donaldson said the association had received more phone calls than usual in recent months.
However she said it was not unusual at this time of year, as autumn was the wild dogs' mating season.
"I have been receiving phone calls from people who I haven't received phonecalls from before, so I would comfortably say there is an increase in numbers from what I've heard,'' Ms Donaldson said.
"It isn't an exact indicator though and we can only work with the feedback we receive from our doggers and pastoralists."
Only one full-time dogger is currently dedicated to cover the Nullarbor Plain.
Ms Donaldson said it was a huge space to cover and the dogger was frequently on the road.
"She does a combination of baiting, trapping and shooting," she said.
"And she uses all the resources available, which is great - she has certainly been getting the numbers.
"We also now have two part-time doggers in the Goldfields, which is great.
"We trained them up last year and they have been going great guns, they have been baiting on pastoral country under private contract and contracted work with the local Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions."
Ms Donaldson said GNRBA had encouraged and offered trapping training to pastoralists to help push more proactive trapping across the region.
She said that it had been adopted "quite well".
"Pastoralists have the option to trade baits for traps to the equivalent value, so they can get a mix of both,'' she said.
"That's been working well."
One of the roadblocks the GNRBA has faced managing wild dogs has been native title determinations on the Nullarbor, which happened last year.
Ms Donaldson said they were in the process of negotiating to have or retain a buffer zone around the Nullarbor's pastoral properties.
"We had a 50 kilometre buffer zone along the north of the Nullarbor, but it was pushed back to 30km over time," she said.
"That gave us a buffer between what was UCL (unallocated Crown land) and the pastoral stations.
"Due to new ownership we have to renegotiate those terms, so we are currently pushed back to the pastoral boundaries and we can't bait outside that at this point.
"That doesn't help the pastoralists at all, but it is a process we obviously have to go through and hopefully we can negotiate something reasonable for both parties."
Ms Donaldson said although all small stock properties on the Nullarbor were dog fenced, there were still areas of compromise at times and dogs could "get in and cause significant damage to stock".
"The Nullarbor is the only region in the GNRBA tenure that has small stock.
"In regards to cattle, although they do not kill calves in numbers like they do to small stock, they cause damage to calves regularly.
"Even a chewed ear or missing tail significantly impacts market value of that animal."
The GNRBA's Nullarbor based licensed pest management technician is involved in a two-year trial with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in collaboration with GNRBA, Meekatharra Rangelands Biosecurity Association, Carnarvon Rangelands Biosecurity Association and the Central Wheatbelt Biosecurity Association.
"Our dogger monitors the cameras (which are set up on properties to capture the movements of wild dogs and bait uptake), replaces batteries and downloads pictures, as part of the trial," Ms Donaldson said.
"It will be really interesting to see what comes of the trial because baiting by no means is an exact science.
"You don't see how many baits are taken up by dogs or how many dogs are killed by baits, all you see is less dog traffic or less evidence of dogs and that's all you can work on.
"And there's a combination - dogs can either be taking baits or it could just be a change in season such as going into winter when the bitches are in pup and they go to ground, so things are a lot quieter."
The trial commenced in November 2020 to evaluate the effectiveness of wild dog control measures in different areas of WA.
Research has been funded by the WA Wild Dog Action Plan to investigate wild dog impacts on livestock production and a range of on-ground control tools.
A DPIRD spokesperson said the outcomes from the trial would help inform and improve wild dog baiting programs to ensure they are operating effectively and efficiently - especially considering the significant investment to control wild dogs.
"The State government provides dollar-for-dollar matching funding to RBGs to control biosecurity threats on farming and pastoral properties," the spokesperson said.
"More than 200 cameras are being used on eight stations and three farms in the Upper Gascoyne, Nullarbor, Northern Agricultural area and the Murchison to monitor wild dogs' interactions with the baits.
"Preliminary trial findings from the Nullarbor region have found current control practices to be effective but the research is still ongoing.
"The results from the trials will be shared with landholders and RBGs to refine wild dog control strategies to protect livestock production."
