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Domesticated dogs threaten the conservation of beach-nesting birds in Australia through disturbance, and destruction of eggs and chicks. Leashing of dogs can improve conservation outcomes, but few dogs are leashed on beaches. We surveyed dog owners to explore their sense of obligation to leash dogs on beaches. Dog owners were more likely to feel obliged to leash their dog when they believed other people expected dogs to be leashed, and when they believed their dog was a threat to wildlife or people. Dog owners were less likely to feel obliged to leash their dog if they considered unleashed dog recreation to be important. Improved compliance may be achieved through community-based approaches to foster social norms for dog control, tailoring information products to emphasize the risk that all unleashed dogs may pose to beachnesting birds and raising awareness of designated off-leash exercise dog recreation areas.

Ornamentation of parents poses a high risk for offspring because it reduces cryptic nest defence. Over a century ago, Wallace proposed that sexual dichromatism enhances crypsis of open-nesting females although subsequent studies found that dichromatism per se is not necessarily adaptive. We tested whether reduced female ornamentation in a sexually dichromatic species reduces the risk of clutch depredation and leads to adaptive parental roles in the red-capped plover Charadrius ruficapillus, a species with biparental incubation. Males had significantly brighter and redder head coloration than females. During daytime, when visually foraging predators are active, colour-matched model males incurred a higher risk of clutch depredation than females, whereas at night there was no difference in depredation risk between sexes. In turn, red-capped plovers maintained a strongly diurnal/nocturnal division of parental care during incubation, with males attending the nest largely at night when visual predators were inactive and females incubating during the day. We found support for Wallace's conclusion that reduced female ornamentation provides a selective advantage when reproductive success is threatened by visually foraging predators. We conclude that predators may alter their prey's parental care patterns and therefore may affect parental cooperation during care.

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Context. Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is induced by an association of a food item with a negative experience, such as illness, which causes animals to avoid subsequent consumption of that particular food item. Inducing CTA may help reduce depredation rates of threatened fauna where predator population control is undesirable, impractical or unsuccessful.Aims. We investigated whether CTA could be induced among foxes (Vulpes vulpes) to model eggs which mimicked those of the threatened hooded plover (Thinornis rubricollis).Methods. Model eggs treated with a potential CTA-inducing chemical (sodium carbonate) and control eggs free of the agent were exposed to fox depredation for 28 days to simulate a hooded plover incubation period. To investigate whether CTA would persist in wild foxes, we implemented a part-time agent treatment (an initial 14 day exposure period of model eggs with the CTA agent followed by a second 14 day period when model eggs were free of the agent).Key results. Similar intervals to the first depredation event were found for all model eggs regardless of treatment. After the first depredation event by foxes, the rate and likelihood of fox depredation was significantly lower in treated eggs than in control eggs. The likelihood or rate of depredation across the three treatments did not differ between the first and second periods.Conclusions. Our results suggest that during an exposure period of at least 28 days, CTA can be induced in wild foxes to eggs on beaches. Our results also suggest that 14 days may be insufficient time for wild foxes to develop a lasting CTA to familiar food items such as eggs.Implications. Treatment of eggs with a CTA-inducing chemical may present a viable alternative to traditional predator control techniques for hooded plovers, as well as other ground-nesting birds, provided that an extended exposure to the CTAinducing agent occurs.Additional keywords: conditioned taste aversion, fox, hooded plover, non-lethal predator control.

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Birds breeding on ocean beaches are threatened globally, often requiring significant investments in species conservation and habitat management. Conservation actions typically encompass spatial and temporal threat reductions and protection of eggs and broods. Still, populations decline or recover only slowly, calling for fresh approaches in beach-bird conservation. Because energetic demands are critically high during the nesting and chick rearing phases, and chick survival is particularly low, supplementing prey to breeding birds and their offspring is theoretically attractive as a Queries and Answers Query: Please check the affiliation "b" and "c" and correct if necessary.

Simple SummaryCoastal urbanisation brings humans into contact with beach-dwelling wildlife. Where wildlife are disturbance prone, active management is required to promote coexistence between beach-goers and endangered wildlife. Coexistence relies on people adopting wildlife-sensitive behaviours. This study examines factors, which influence people’s awareness and perceptions of threatened species management in southern Australia, using Hooded Plover Thinornis rubricollis management as a model. The inconvenience experienced by beach goers in regard to plover management was low. Awareness and support for plover conservation were high. Frequency of beach use, whether a person was a dog walker, and awareness of the species and its plight, influenced perceptions.AbstractWe surveyed 579 recreationists regarding management of the threatened, beach-dwelling Hooded Plover Thinornis rubricollis. We postulated that: (1) lower awareness of the species and higher ‘inconvenience’ of management would engender less favourable perceptions of conservation and management; and (2) that frequency of beach use and dog ownership may mediate perceptions and levels of awareness and inconvenience. Overall, inconvenience was low while awareness and support for plover conservation were high. Education and awareness strategies were considered less effective than regulations; exclusion and regulations were considered less desirable than on-ground protective measures. Awareness, frequency of beach use and dog walking did not influence the perceived effectiveness of different managements. More frequent beach users had greater awareness of the species and their plight but reported greater inconvenience associated with management. Respondents with high awareness rated the severity of human-related threats higher; low awareness was associated with more inconvenience associated with on-ground protection, and exclusion and regulations. Dog walkers reported more inconvenience associated with exclusions and regulations than non-dog walkers. Dog walkers who used the beach infrequently rated threats significantly higher than frequent beach users. Conservation and education strategies could usefully be tailored to beach users’ level of use and pet ownership.