Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p70
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 201776–204695

to limited budgets. Aerial survey techniques have also been reviewed and refined. The park is participating in a feral cat research project as part of the National Environmental Research Programme. Two fenced exclosures have been built to exclude feral cats and extensive fauna surveys are being undertaken to improve the evidence base concerning the impacts of feral cats. The park also supports research projects on black rats and disease, and on training northern quolls to avoid cane toads.

The EPBC Regulations prohibit the movement of livestock through the park and bringing in or keeping animals in the park, except in accordance with this plan or a permit issued by the Director. Section 10.13 of this plan sets out the prescriptions concerning bringing plants, animals and other material into the park.

Background on individual species

    * Buffalo and cattle
  Asian water buffalo and cattle impact on all park environments. Freshwater springs are particularly impacted: many change from clear running systems to turbid sediment carrying systems due to buffalo wallowing. Buffalo and cattle also contribute to saltwater intrusion and spread weeds. Buffalo are a major threat to effective management of mimosa, and their rubbing on rock faces impacts on rock art sites. The BTEC removed most buffalo from the park and enabled many disturbed areas to recover. Since then, numbers of buffalo have increased gradually. They are abundant in neighbouring Arnhem Land and pastoral properties, and their numbers are increasing within the park, particularly in the south.

    * Pigs
  Pigs cause noticeable widespread impacts around springs, floodplains and small rainforest patches. As well as digging up plant foods they are known to predate on a range of small native animals, including frogs, lizards and turtles, and on their eggs. The foraging activities of pigs help to spread weeds, such as mimosa and olive hymenachne, and this is a major concern. Pigs breed rapidly, so populations can quickly re-establish following control.

    * Cats
  Feral cats are associated with reductions in native species, particularly reptiles, birds and ground-dwelling mammals such as the brush-tailed rabbit-rat, but more information is required to understand the population and impacts of feral cats. Reasonably broad-scale control activities are now being undertaken by Western Australia Parks and Wildlife in the Pilbara.

    * Cane toads
  Cane toads arrived in the southern regions of Kakadu in 2001 and populations are now well established throughout the park. Cane toads have serious impacts on some wildlife populations. Toads eat a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate native animals (not only impacting on prey species but also reducing food resources for other native animals), and they have toxic defences that can result in the deaths of animals that eat toads. These impacts also affect the availability