Non-target species interaction with sodium fluoroacetate (1080) meat bait for controlling feral pigs (Sus scrofa)

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Millar ◽  
Matthew Gentle ◽  
Luke K.-P. Leung

Fresh meat baits containing sodium fluoroacetate (1080) are widely used for controlling feral pigs in Queensland, but there is a potential poisoning risk to non-target species. This study investigated the non-target species interactions with meat bait by comparing the time until first approach, investigation, sample and consumption, and whether dying bait green would reduce interactions. A trial assessing species interactions with undyed bait was completed at Culgoa Floodplain National Park, Queensland. Meat baits were monitored for 79 consecutive days with camera traps. Of 40 baits, 100% were approached, 35% investigated (moved) and 25% sampled, and 25% consumed. Monitors approached (P < 0.05) and investigated (P < 0.05) the bait more rapidly than pigs or birds, but the median time until first sampling was not significantly different (P > 0.05), and did not consume any entire bait. A trial was conducted at Whetstone State Forest, southern Queensland, with green-dyed and undyed baits monitored for eight consecutive days with cameras. Of 60 baits, 92% were approached and also investigated by one or more non-target species. Most (85%) were sampled and 57% were consumed, with monitors having slightly more interaction with undyed baits than with green-dyed baits. Mean time until first approach and sample differed significantly between species groups (P = 0.038 and 0.007 respectively) with birds approaching sooner (P < 0.05) and monitors sampling later (P < 0.05) than other (unknown) species (P > 0.05). Undyed bait was sampled earlier (mean 2.19 days) than green-dyed bait (2.7 days) (P = 0.003). Data from the two trials demonstrate that many non-target species regularly visit and sample baits. The use of green-dyed baits may help reduce non-target uptake, but testing is required to determine the effect on attractiveness to feral pigs. Further research is recommended to quantify the benefits of potential strategies to reduce the non-target uptake of meat baits to help improve the availability of bait to feral pigs.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eivind Flittie Kleiven ◽  
Frederic Barraquand ◽  
Olivier Gimenez ◽  
John-André Henden ◽  
Rolf Anker Ims ◽  
...  

1AbstractOccupancy models have been developed independently to account for multiple spatial scales and species interactions in a dynamic setting. However, as interacting species (e.g., predators and prey) often operate at different spatial scales, including nested spatial structure might be especially relevant in models of interacting species. Here we bridge these two model frameworks by developing a multi-scale two-species occupancy model. The model is dynamic, i.e. it estimates initial occupancy, colonization and extinction probabilities - including probabilities conditional to the other species’ presence. With a simulation study, we demonstrate that the model is able to estimate parameters without bias under low, medium and high average occupancy probabilities, as well as low, medium and high detection probabilities. We further show the model’s ability to deal with sparse field data by applying it to a multi-scale camera trapping dataset on a mustelid-rodent predator-prey system. The field study illustrates that the model allows estimation of species interaction effects on colonization and extinction probabilities at two spatial scales. This creates opportunities to explicitly account for the spatial structure found in many spatially nested study designs, and to study interacting species that have contrasted movement ranges with camera traps.


Author(s):  
Bruce Woodward ◽  
Sandra Mitchell

We visited Grand Teton National Park in May, June and July 1991 to begin research on species interactions in shallow montane ponds. Our primary interests were in how body size variation influences species interactions, and how temperature influences body size and thus species interactions. Our goal in the first year was to explore the extant variation in temperature regimes and body sizes of potentially interacting species, and examine some of these species interactions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kole Brownstein

AbstractThe use of camera traps in animal ecology has transformed the field by allowing a greater quantity of detailed observations with limited human interference. One of largest camera trap studies published to date is from the Serengeti National Park (SNP) in Tanzania, East Africa which deployed 225 camera traps and obtained over 1.2 million pictures. This paper will focus primarily on the top predator of the Serengeti, the lion, and how it affects and is affected by prey, subordinate predators and the dramatic shift in the seasons. I asked the following three questions to better understand species relationships in the SNP: 1) Do the seasons in the SNP have an effect on the RAB of lions? 2) Does the presence or absence of lions have an effect on the RAB of hyenas in the wet season? 3) Does the presence/absence of Thompson gazelles (Eudorcas thomsonii) and impalas (Aepyceros melampus) in the wet season have an effect on the RAB of lions? During the dry and wet season of 2012 in the SNP there did not appear to be a change in the relative abundance of lions (Fig. 1), nor did lion relative abundance affect hyenas. The lions might possibly alter their diet during the dry seasons to include non-migratory species and choose not to change their territory on a season to season basis. Based on these findings research should focus on how the lions adapt to the changes in prey abundance during the wet and dry season. This preliminary analysis of the ecological dynamics of lions and associated species in the SNP is intriguing and yet raises significantly more questions than it has answered. Additional research surrounding the effects of yearly migration on the lions home territory, diet, and species interactions should be investigated more thoroughly, to greater understand the ecological relationships in the SNP.


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan D. Cowled ◽  
Steven J. Lapidge ◽  
Michelle Smith ◽  
Linton Staples

Following a bait-preference pilot study on captive feral pigs, a series of field studies assessed the attractiveness and target-specificity of a prototype manufactured feral pig bait (PIGOUT®). Two promising test baits and fresh meat reference baits were biomarked with iophenoxic acid and aerially distributed in 100-km2 blocks of land infested with feral pigs in western Queensland to assess field uptake and target-specificity without prefeeding. Uptake was assessed by measuring blood iodine levels in aerially shot feral pigs. In all, 80% of feral pigs sampled in a non-toxic PIGOUT®-baited area had significantly elevated blood iodine, compared with 52% of sampled feral pigs in a meat-baited area (although slightly different baiting strategies were employed). No age or sex bias was evident in PIGOUT®-consuming feral pigs. No monitored manufactured baits were consumed by non-target species in 500 bait-nights. Attractiveness and target-specificity trials of ground-laid, unfenced PIGOUT® baits compared with reference baits were subsequently undertaken in several regions of eastern Australia. Results showed that PIGOUT® was consumed readily by feral pigs at all sites, and that it offered significant improvement in target specificity when compared with unfenced wheat or meat baits. However, the baits were consumed by small numbers of macropods, birds and possums. Available evidence indicates that the target-specificity of PIGOUT® bait is highest in the rangelands, reducing slightly in temperate areas and subalpine forests, where abundance of small animals is higher.


2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 605 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. McIlroy ◽  
E. J. Gifford

Eight feral pigs (two boars, four sows and two piglets) were caught in traps using oestrous sows as lures during a control program on a remnant pig population in part of Namadgi National Park during spring, 1990. The program was mostly based on aerial baiting with warfarin. No pigs were caught in traps containing anoestrous sows or in traps containing bait only. Seven unmarked pigs (caught seven days after the cessation of baiting) did not appear to have eaten any warfarin bait. In an earlier pilot trial, two boars were caught at a trap containing an oestrous sow, one of these again in a trap baited only with fermented grain, but no pigs were caught at a trap containing an anoestrous sow. Although not cost-effective as a general technique, this method could be useful in specific circumstances, such as eradication campaigns on islands, if the last few pigs are, or have become bait shy, or are impossible to cull by other methods.


Primates ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Martínez-Íñigo ◽  
Pauline Baas ◽  
Harmonie Klein ◽  
Simone Pika ◽  
Tobias Deschner

AbstractIntercommunity competition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) has been widely studied in eastern (P. t. schweinfurthii) and western (P. t. verus) communities. Both subspecies show hostility towards neighboring communities but differ in rates of lethal attacks and female involvement. However, relatively little is known about the territorial behavior of the two other subspecies, central (P. t. troglodytes) and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (P. t. ellioti). Here, we present the first insights into intercommunity interactions of individuals of a community of central chimpanzees living in the Loango National Park in Gabon. The presence of individuals of neighboring communities in the Rekambo home range was assessed using 27 camera traps. Information was compiled on intergroup interactions recorded before (2005–2016) and after (January 2017–June 2019) the habituation of the community. Individuals from neighboring communities entered the core area, where nine out of 16 recorded intercommunity encounters occurred. Males were the main participants in territorial patrols and intercommunity aggressions. Females were part of all six territorial patrols recorded and dependent offspring participated in five patrols. Females were involved in intercommunity aggression in five out of twelve recorded encounters in which there was visual contact between communities. While the intercommunity encounter rate was lower than that reported across most other long-term chimpanzee sites, the annual intercommunity killing rate was among the highest. These results suggest that the frequency of lethal attacks at Loango is comparable to that reported for the eastern subspecies. In contrast, female involvement in intercommunity interactions mirrors that of the western subspecies.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5061 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-352
Author(s):  
MARCOS FIANCO ◽  
OSCAR J. CADENA-CASTAÑEDA ◽  
NEUCIR SZINWELSKI ◽  
LUIZ R. R. FARIA

Three new species of Anaulacomera are described, Anaulacomera (Anaulacomera) mariellae sp. n. and Anaulacomera (Anallomes) arlindoi sp. n., belonging respectively to the Inermis and Lanceolata species group, and Anaulacomera angelinae sp. n., placed as incertae sedis. The individuals were collected at the Iguaçu National Park and adjacent small fragments of Atlantic Forest, in southwestern Paraná state, Brazil. The description was based on external morphology of males. We also present distribution maps for the species of the Inermis and the Lanceolata species groups.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20180983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Dangles ◽  
Mario Herrera ◽  
Carlos Carpio ◽  
Christopher J. Lortie

Understanding the variation in species interactions along environmental stress gradients is crucial for making robust ecological predictions about community responses to changing environmental conditions. The facilitation–competition framework has provided a strong basis for predictions (e.g. the stress-gradient hypothesis, SGH), yet the mechanisms behind patterns in animal interactions on stress gradients are poorly explored in particular for mobile animals. Here, we proposed a conceptual framework modelling changes in facilitation costs and benefits along stress gradients and experimentally tested this framework by measuring fitness outcomes of benefactor–beneficiary interactions across resource quality levels. Three arthropod consumer models from a broad array of environmental conditions were used including aquatic detritivores, potato moths and rainforest carrion beetles. We detected a shift to more positive interactions at increasing levels of stress thereby supporting the application of the SGH to mobile animals. While most benefactors paid no significant cost of facilitation, an increase in potato moth beneficiary's growth at high resource stress triggered costs for benefactors. This study is the first to experimentally show that both costs and benefits function simultaneously on stress gradients for animals. The proposed conceptual framework could guide future studies examining species interaction outcomes for both animals and plants in an increasingly stressed world.


Author(s):  
Kelly Pearce ◽  
Tom Serfass

Grand Teton National Park is part of the known range of the North American river otter, however not much is known about this semi-aquatic mammal within the park. The results presented here are part of a larger project to investigate the potential of the river otter (Lontra canadensis) to serve as an aquatic flagship (species that engender public support and action) for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. River otters, known for their charismatic behavior have the potential to serve as an aquatic flagship species to promote conservation of aquatic ecosystems. The primary objective of this portion of the study was to identify river otter latrines on portions of the Snake River, between Flagg Ranch and Jackson Lake, and between Jackson Lake Dam and Pacific Creek, collect river otter scats to determine diet of the river otter, and employ remote cameras to determine activity patterns of the river otters. Between 20 June and 1 July 2015, 26 river otter latrines were identified during shoreline surveys, 186 river otter scats were collected, and cameras were deployed at 6 latrines between 7 July and 24 August 2015. River otter scats have been cleaned and prepared for analysis, but have not all been processed to date. Camera traps recorded 222 images, of which 7% (n = 14) were of carnivores, 70% (n = 155) were of non-carnivore mammals, and 9% (n = 22) were of birds. River otters were detected at 1 of the 6 latrines, a total of 5 independent times during the study.


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