Peter Hamnett

I’m a PhD student working alongside the department of Primary Industries and Regions, South Australia, using mathematical models to support feral deer eradication in South Australia.

While invasive deer are my current focus, I have a broad background in environmental management and biodiversity conservation, and I’m interested in improving how we manage invasive species to reduce their threat to native biodiversity and primary production. In 2022-23, my Honours project developed a demographic model to support feral pig eradication on Kangaroo Island feral pig.

Prior to this, I spent several years working alongside indigenous rangers on the warru (black-footed rock wallaby) recovery project in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in central Australia. My time in the APY lands drove home the importance of invasive species management for biodiversity conservation and inspired me to return to university to pursue higher degree research.

Supervisors: Prof Corey Bradshaw (Flinders University, Global Ecology Lab), Dr Frédérik Saltré (BEAM), Dr Brad Page (PIRSA)

My research

My PhD includes the following:

A systematic review of aerial shooting programs for pest mammal species.
A habitat suitability model to identify factors influencing deer occurrence.
Sampling culled deer to derive vital rates (age-specific survival and fertility).
A stochastic population projection to determine minimum annual removal targets to achieve feral deer eradication within the project timeframe.
Fitting functional response models to catch-effort data to predict escalating effort and costs of deer control as density is reduced.

My interests

Invasive species
Threatened species
Ecological modelling
Applied research
Indigenous land management and two-way science

Selected publications

Hamnett, P. W., Saltré, F., Page, B., Tarran, M., Korcz, M., Fielder, K., Andrews, L., & Bradshaw, C. J. A. (2024). Stochastic population models to identify optimal and cost‐effective harvest strategies for feral pig eradication. Ecosphere, 15(12). https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70082
Cox, T. E., Paine, D., O’Dwyer-Hall, E., Matthews, R., Blumson, T., Florance, B., Fielder, K., Tarran, M., Korcz, M., Wiebkin, A., Hamnett, P. W., Bradshaw, C. J. A., & Page, B. (2023). Thermal aerial culling for the control of vertebrate pest populations. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 10063-10063. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37210-0

Fun facts

Outside of uni, I’m a keen rock climber and spend most of my free time either rock climbing or thinking about rock climbing.