Feral Goats

Feral goats (Capra hircus) in Australia are goats that have gone wild after being introduced as domestic livestock. Goats arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 and were later released or escaped from farms and stations over the years. Without fences or anyone looking after them, they formed wild populations. Today feral goats are found in all mainland states, from Queensland and New South Wales through to South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and the Norther Territory, though the biggest numbers tend to be in the semi arid rangelands.

Physical traits: Feral goats range from small stocky goats to larger breeds that have interbred, often with shaggy coats and horns. They're extremely hardy creatures. They can survive on tough, dry scrub that sheep or cattle won't touch, and need surprisingly little water when green feed is available. They're also natural escape artists, excellent climbers and jumpers, able to get through fences and navigate steep rocky country with ease.

Social behavior: Goats are herding animals. In good seasons when food and water are plentiful, they might break into smaller scattered groups. But in dry times, those groups come together, farmers have reported seeing hundreds of goats mobbing up around scarce water points in a drought. Feral goats are mostly active in the daytime, resting overnight on ridges or sheltered spots. They're quite intelligent and will change their habits if they've been disturbed. For example, if people start hunting them regularly in one paddock, they'll move to harder to reach areas or become more nocturnal.

Feral goat mob in natural habitat - note their agility in rough terrain and varied coat colors

Feral goats spell trouble both environmentally and economically.

• Pasture competition: For farmers, the biggest issue is that goats graze and trample pastures meant for livestock. An unmanaged mob of goats can chew a paddock down to the roots, leaving very little feed for sheep or cattle. They'll ringbark young trees and foul waterholes. In western NSW and other dry areas, goats often crowd around limited water sources, muddying dams and contaminating troughs.
• Infrastructure damage: They can damage infrastructure too, it's not unknown for goats to push through fences or knock down sections of a fence line in their search for food.
• Disease spread: Feral goats carry diseases and parasites that can spread to domestic livestock. For example, goats can carry footrot and other sheep diseases, making it harder to control those problems on your farm. If there were an outbreak of an exotic disease like foot and mouth, feral goats could help it spread further.
• Economic impact: One estimate in the 1990s put farm production losses from feral goats at about $25 million per year (and that didn't even count environmental damage), and that figure would be much higher today.
• Environmental damage: Goats are voracious browsers, they eat native shrubs, young trees, grasses, even bark off trees. They can drastically thin out native vegetation, targeting the more palatable plants first. By stripping vegetation and trampling the soil with their hooves, goats contribute to erosion and land degradation, especially on slopes and in arid rangelands.
• Biodiversity threat: Goats compete with native herbivores (like kangaroos and wallabies) for food and water, and they can destroy habitat that native species rely on. Feral goats have been listed as a key threatening process to native species in Australia, meaning they've been officially recognised for contributing to endangerment of wildlife and ecosystems.

In short, if you care about your land's long term health (and that of Australia's native fauna and flora), feral goats are not something you want running rampant.

Feral goats excel at navigating difficult terrain - their climbing ability makes control challenging

Ground shooting refers to controlling feral goats by shooting them with firearms (typically medium-calibre rifles) from the ground. When done correctly, ground shooting has some important strengths: it's immediate (the results are seen right away), selective (you can choose specific target animals), and if shooters are experienced, it's a humane method.

Ground shooting can be carried out both during the day or at night. In daylight, goats are often spotted feeding in mobs and can be stalked by shooters on foot or approached on vehicles. At night, shooters use spotlights or thermal scopes and night-vision to locate goats in the dark. With modern thermal optics, shooters can detect the heat signature of goats from hundreds of metres away in darkness.

Despite these advantages, one person on the ground with a rifle can only cover so much area in a session. That's why ground shooting is often characterised as labour intensive in official guidelines. However, it is extremely useful for knock down and ongoing control: you can rapidly reduce numbers in accessible areas, and by doing periodic shooting you can keep suppressing the population.

Using ground shooting effectively:

• Coordinate with other methods: A common approach is to do a big muster or trapping effort first (to remove the easy to catch majority), then use ground shooting to hunt down the escapees that hide in rough terrain or dense scrub.
• Pick the right timing: During dry periods, focus efforts around water sources, as water gets scarce, goats predictably congregate at dams/creeks, making ambushes or stake-outs productive. Time of day matters: early morning and late afternoon are prime times to find goats out feeding.
• Be consistent: One ground shooting session won't solve the problem. Follow up is crucial. Scheduling regular culling sessions (e.g. every few months or each season) will continually put pressure on the population.
• Cost effective with volunteers: One concern some landholders have with ground shooting is cost as hiring professional shooters can be expensive. This is where programs like Feral Up come in, by leveraging trained volunteer shooters. Instead of paying a contract shooter hundreds of dollars a day, you can have competent volunteers who are happy to do it for free.