Behind New Zealand’s wild plan to purge all pests

Abstract

R azza the rat nearly ended James Russell's scientific career. Twelve years ago, as an ecology graduate student, Russell was releasing radio-collared rats on to small islands off the coast of New Zealand to study how the creatures take hold and become invasive. Despite his sworn assurances that released animals would be well monitored and quickly removed, one rat, Razza, evaded capture and swam to a nearby island.For 18 weeks, Russell hunted the animal. Frustrated and embarrassed, he fretted about how the disaster would affect his PhD. "I felt rather morose about the prospects for my dissertation, " he says.Although there was a lot of literature on controlling large rat populations, little had been written about tracking and killing a single rodent, which turns out to be rather important in efforts to completely eradicate a species. "It demonstrated how hard it is to catch that very first rat as it arrives on an island -or, conversely, the very last rat that you're trying to get off, " says Russell, now at the University of Auckland.Razza's escape became the subject of a paper in Nature 1 as well as a popular children's book. And now, with more than a decade of successful pest-eradication projects behind him, Russell is taking on a much bigger challenge. He is coordinating research and development for a programme that the government announced last July to eliminate all invasive vertebrate predators -rats, brushtail possums, stoats and more -from New Zealand by 2050 to protect the country's rare endemic species. The audacious plan is not as far-fetched as it sounds, says Josh Donlan, director of Advanced Conservation Strategies, a T H E B I G C U L L B Y B R I A N O W E N SBrushtail possums are among the numerous invasive pests regularly culled in New Zealand. © 2 0 1 7 M a c m i l l a n P u b l i s h e r s L i m i t e d , p a r t o f S p r i n g e r N a t u r e . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d .

The genomic ancestry, landscape genetics and invasion history of introduced mice in New Zealand

“…New Zealand is currently investigating the use of gene-drive technology [ 113 ] to help eradicate mammalian pest species as part of the aspirational ‘Predator Free 2050’ project [ 114 ]. Current laboratory proof-of-concept research is proceeding on mice as a model organism, due to their short generation times and the extensive genomic resources available for this species.…”

The ethics of genetic engineering and gene drives in conservation

“…Proponents argue that the use of gene drives to eliminate invasive predators, pests, and disease vectors should be explored because they could be effective in places where current methods are not feasible or have not been successful (Dearden et al 2017;Liao et al 2017;Owens 2017;Piaggio et al 2017). They argue that conservationists should be open to possible genetic modification of threatened tree species to protect them from introduced diseases because it could be the only way to establish resistance in a sufficient timeframe (Powell 2016;NAS 2019).…”

“…The idea of engineering genetic changes into wild populations to pursue conservation aims is gaining proponents (e.g., Champer et al 2016;Johnson et al 2016;Dearden et al 2017;Piaggio et al 2017;Owens 2017;Rohwer 2018;Phelps et al 2019). The genetic analysis, synthesis, and editing techniques that underlie this possibility are developing quickly (Mei et al 2016;Knott & Doudna 2018;Grunwald et al 2019;IUCN 2019).…”

“…Proponents argue that the use of gene drives to eliminate invasive predators, pests, and disease vectors should be explored because they could be effective in places where current methods are not feasible or have not been successful (Dearden et al. ; Liao et al ; Owens ; Piaggio et al. ).…”

Novel biotechnologies for eradicating wasps: seeking Māori studies students’ perspectives with Q method

“…The community-rooted Predator-Free 2050 (PF2050) goal was a government initiative launched in 2016, with the aim to eradicate rats, possums and stoats from A-NZ. The ambition of the project ethos has been lauded by some as A-NZ's 'moon shot', an opportunity to bring natives such as kiwi back into abundance, and a way to connect and support existing efforts to protect threatened species (Russell et al 2015;Norton et al 2016;Owens 2017). To achieve the PF2050 goal, new, effective and socially acceptable methods of pest control are likely to be needed (Goldson et al 2015).…”