Animal management in the Australian rangelands

Abstract

Invasive vertebrates and overabundant native species cause significant economic and environmental damage in the Australian rangelands, which cover more than 70% of the continent. Some estimates put the annual loss in livestock production due to such pest species at more than $700 million.1–3 Access to pastoral watering points has been a major factor in the spread and survival of pest species. While methods of controlling access watering points have been developed,4 they are problematic. Essentially all current trap systems rely on oneway barriers and cannot discriminate between pest and desired species. To address this problem, we have developed a system of identifying animal species using machine vision, which uses computers to process images and then applies the resultant information to manipulate equipment. In recent years such systems have becomemore common in remote-sensing applications for all aspects of the agricultural domain5 as well as many areas of wildlife management.6 When used in conjunction with an enclosure and an automated gate, our system can control animals’ access to a limiting resource, like water,7 and thus function to exclude pest species, trap desired species, and otherwise manage livestock. It requires no physical contact with the animals, reducing both system maintenance requirements and animal stress. Computing capabilities have now developed to the point that processing of real-time video data is also feasible. The concept that governs the system is simple: control the water (or other resource), and you control all large vertebrates (>10 kg) that require water to survive. Three main components achieve this goal. First, an enclosure with an entry lane surrounds the limiting resource. For the machine vision software to accurately identify animals to the species level, it must view the animals laterally and in single-file arrangement. Our enclosure and entry lane were constructed of galvanized weld mesh Figure 1. A watering point enclosure excludes some species while allowing access to others. The gate remains open, closing when undesirable animals are detected in the entry lane, then reopening after a predetermined period of time.