How smart tech is reshaping feral pest control across SA’s landscapes
South Australia’s landscape boards are combining on-ground expertise with artificial intelligence, remote sensor cameras and satellite tracking to tackle feral pests at a scale that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.
From island cat eradication to coordinated feral pig control and vegetation recovery, smarter surveillance is transforming how invasive species are managed.
Traditionally, invasive species control relied heavily on manual patrols, physical trap checks and reactive responses. Today, remote sensing technology is giving landscape boards real-time alerts from the field that save time and deliver targeted results.
Connected trap network supports feral cat eradication
On Kangaroo Island, the KI Landscape Board is delivering the Dudley Peninsula Feral Cat Eradication program across more than 40,000 hectares. More than 1,000 traps are fitted with Celium trap alert technology, creating a connected network that communicates trap status directly to field teams and participating landholders via mobile apps.
This low-power, low-cost system eliminates the need for routine physical trap checks. Teams know instantly when a trap has been triggered, increasing operational efficiency by more than 70 per cent while improving animal welfare outcomes and reducing unnecessary vehicle movements across the landscape.
Surveillance doesn’t stop at traps. Across the eradication zone, 4G-enabled remote cameras capture around 30,000 images each day. These images are processed in near real time by the eVorta AI platform, which automatically identifies feral cats and priority native species with high accuracy.
Instead of manually reviewing vast image libraries, staff receive rapid detections that guide immediate, targeted action. As populations decline, this near real-time analysis becomes even more important — helping locate the last remaining individuals and ultimately confirm eradication through proof-of-absence monitoring.
Behind the scenes, this enormous flow of information is integrated through GIS platforms and customised dashboards. Trap alerts, AI detections and spatial data are combined into live analytics and decision-support tools. Managers can track progress, identify activity hotspots and coordinate works across complex terrain and land tenures with precision.
In the Northern and Yorke region, advanced tools such as AI‑assisted cellular cameras and wireless trap technology have been a major success, significantly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of landscape‑scale fox and feral cat control. On Yorke Peninsula, the Marna Banggara rewilding project is also using coded VHF telemetry to track translocated yalgi (brush‑tailed bettongs), enabling precise survivorship monitoring and rapid detection of threats to these vulnerable animals. This technology is helping turn the tide for the once locally extinct yalgi, which is now experiencing strong population growth thanks to targeted predator control underpinned by these innovations.
Remote cameras track grazing pressure on critically endangered vegetation
A similar intelligence-led model is being applied on Eyre Peninsula. The Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board is using solar-powered 4G remote cameras to support recovery of the critically endangered drooping sheoak grassy woodland on calcrete. Once one of the most common vegetation types on Eyre Peninsula, it is now listed as Critically Endangered under the EPBC Act and only around 3% of its former extent remains.
With heavy grazing pressure from kangaroos, rabbits, goats, deer and even white snails, continuous monitoring allows staff to identify which herbivore species are impacting revegetation sites.
Remote sensor cameras positioned at priority sites provide continuous, low effort monitoring across large landscapes that would otherwise be impractical to inspect manually. This provides accurate, defensible data on grazing pressure, enabling adaptive management such as targeted control, protective fencing and adjustments to grazing-exclusion measures. This project is funded by the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by the EP Landscape Board, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners Panel.
On-ground cameras and drones combine for feral pig control
The Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board is applying the same technological principles to feral pig management. An array of 4G remote sensor cameras, powered by solar and rechargeable batteries, send images directly to eVorta, which rapidly identifies pigs, estimates group size and assesses group composition.
This intelligence is critical to humane and effective trapping. Remote-activated trap systems can be armed only when an entire feral pig mob is present, reducing the risk of partial captures and avoiding the creation of trap-shy animals. The integration of automated monitoring and action increases whole-group removal rates and improves animal welfare outcomes.
The system is further strengthened through drone technology. High-definition and thermal drones provide an aerial perspective of the landscape, detecting pigs in dense vegetation and documenting environmental impacts such as wetland wallowing and aquatic plant damage.
Over the past 18 months across more than 118,600 acres, 221 feral pigs have been removed in the Murraylands and Riverland, not including additional feral pigs controlled by private landholders. Given the species high reproductive potential, this reduction represents a significant decrease in environmental, agricultural and cultural impacts across the landscape.
Across South Australia, the integration of remote sensors, AI image recognition, GIS dashboards, drone surveys and tracking technology is delivering measurable benefits:
- Higher capture efficiency
- Lower operational costs
- Reduced fuel use and staff time
- Less disturbance to non-target species
- Improved animal welfare outcomes
- Quantifiable environmental protection
- Coordinated control across multiple properties
- Defensible, data-driven reporting
Importantly, technology is not replacing on-ground expertise. It is amplifying it. Field officers, landholders and project managers remain central to decision-making and delivery. What has changed is the speed, scale and precision with which they can act.
Remote sensors detect activity. AI classifies and prioritises. GIS systems integrate and visualise. Teams respond strategically and adapt based on evidence.
By shifting from reactive control to intelligence-led management, South Australia’s landscape boards are demonstrating how innovation can deliver real-world outcomes for biodiversity, agriculture and communities.
It’s not about the technology itself. It’s about what it enables: smarter decisions, coordinated action and increased scale of protection for the state’s landscapes.
