Introduced animals on Tasmanian Islands

About the report

Tasmania has over 300 offshore islands, 65 of which are 20 hectares in size or larger. Fifty-six islands were found to have introduced and/or feral animals present. Most of this information was obtained from surveys conducted since 1978. Rabbits were the most common feral animal, found on 23 islands followed by cats (17), mice (11), cattle (11) and rats (10). Twenty-five islands (> 20 ha) were found to be free of feral and/or introduced animals and the majority of these were in the south-west of the state. Islands with feral animals were more common around more populated areas, particularly in the south-east of the state. None of the islands identified were not in the Gazetteer of Australia.

Three acts regulate the introduction and movements of animals within Tasmania: 1) the Nature Conservation Act 2002, 2) the Animal Health Act 1995 and 3) the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1970. Regulations under the latter act provide the strongest protection to islands, however these regulations only apply to islands with reserve status. The URLs of eight management plans, covering 88 islands are also provided within this report.

This report does not deal in detail with native animals that have been introduced to Tasmanian islands. There is considerable uncertainty surrounding this issue, particularly regarding the Brushtail possum and Bennett's wallaby. Similarly, Tiger snakes have not been addressed in detail but there have been known introductions of this species to several Tasmanian islands.