Research interests

• Strategic management of vertebrate pests and other wildlife.
• Ecology, behaviour and management of feral goats and wild dogs. 
• Economics of vertebrate pest management.
• Education and stakeholder training in vertebrate pest and wildlife management.

Background

Peter has been undertaking research into the management of invasive animal species since 1983, when he joined the Vertebrate Pest Research Unit initially at Glen Innes. He has investigated bird pest damage of summer crops, flying-fox damage to subtropical fruit, damage and control of red foxes and wild dogs, effects of rabbits on pastures and wool production, and models of foot-and-mouth disease in feral goats and merino sheep.

Peter has contributed to the understanding of the population dynamics, behavioural ecology and control of invasive animal species, particularly those species that have both detrimental and beneficial impacts on agricultural and natural ecosystems. He has published over 100 publications informing State and national policy on exotic disease preparedness, strategic management across tenures, and animal welfare aspects of control practices. His work also has strong application to day-to-day management by stakeholders responsible for managing invasive animals in all terrestrial ecosystems in New South Wales, elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

He currently leads Invasive Animals CRC projects on strategic management of wild dogs, developing genetic technologies for invasive animal monitoring and stakeholder training and is based at Orange Agricultural Institute.

Qualifications

• B.Sc. (Hons) – University of New England (1981)
• M. Res Sc. – University of New England (1996)
• PhD Applied Science – University of Canberra (2005) 
• Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training – Murrumbidgee College (2004)

Current projects

• Demonstrating the benefits of the strategic approach to managing wild dogs in north eastern NSW and southern Queensland.
• Models of the dynamics of spotted-tailed quoll populations in areas of wild canid control.
• Spatial and temporal models of exotic disease spread within and between feral goats and merino sheep.
• Collaborative project developing user-friendly feral goat and macropod abundance indices.
• Aerial surveys of herbivores in western NSW national parks and nature reserves.
• Costs and control of grey-headed flying-fox damage to orchards in the Sydney Basin.
• Invasive Animals CRC collaborative project on DNA technologies for determining abundance and activity of wild dogs, foxes ad feral cats.
• Anthropogenic change and invasive animal assemblages in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Recent Publications

Tracey JP, and Fleming PJS (2007) Behavioural responses of feral goats (Capra hircus) to helicopter surveys. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 108, 114-128.

Fleming PJS, Tracey JP, and McLeod SR (2006) Models of FMDV transmission in Australian feral goats and sheep. Proceedings of the 11th Symposium of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, Cairns, Australia: ISVEE 11, 617-621.

Fleming PJS, Allen LR, Lapidge SJ, Robley A, Saunders GR and Thomson PC (2006) A strategic approach to mitigating the impacts of wild canids: proposed activities of the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46, 753-762.

Tracey JP, Fleming PJS and Melville GJ (2005) Does variable probability of detection compromise the use of indices in aerial surveys of medium-sized mammals? Wildlife Research 32, 245-252.

Gongora J, Fleming PJS, Spencer PBS, Mason R, Garkavenko O, Meyer J-N, Droegemuller C, Lee JH and Moran C (2004) Phylogenetic relationships of Australian and New Zealand feral pigs assessed by mitochondrial control region sequence and nuclear GPIP genotype. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33, 339–348.

Allen LR and Fleming PJS (2004) Review of canid management in Australia for the protection of livestock and wildlife - potential application to coyote management. Sheep & Goat Research Journal 19, 97–104.

Croft JD, Fleming PJS and van de Ven R, (2002) The impact of rabbits on a grazing system in eastern New South Wales. 1. Ground cover and pastures. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 42, 909–916.

Fleming PJS, Croft JD and Nicol HI (2002) The impact of rabbits on a grazing system in eastern New South Wales. 2. Sheep production. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 42, 917–923.

Fleming PJS, Gilmour A and Thompson JA (2002) Chronology and spatial distribution of cockatoo damage to two sunflower hybrids in south-eastern Australia, and the influence of plant morphology on damage. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 91, 127–137.

Fleming P, Corbett L, Harden R and Thomson P (2001) Managing the Impacts of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs. (Bureau of Resource Sciences, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.) pp 186.

Fleming PJS, Choquenot D, and Mason RJ (2000) Aerial baiting of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) for exotic disease control in semi-arid rangelands of New South Wales. Wildlife Research 27, 531–537.

Professional associations and activities

• Committee member, Australasian Wildlife Management Society
• Australian Society for Animal Production

Fields of Research

• 060208 Terrestrial Ecology
• 060201 Behavioural Ecology
• 060304 Ethology and Sociobiology
• 050202 Conservation and Biodiversity
• 070308 Plant Protection (Pests, Diseases and Weeds) 
• 070205 Animal Protection (Pests and Pathogens) 
• 050211 Wildlife and Habitat Management

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Wildlife management
• Pest animal control
• Animal disease epidemiology
• Animal abundance estimation