Kea survival during aerial poisoning for rat and possum control

Kemp, J. F.; Mosen, Corey; Elliott, Graeme; Hunter, Christine M.; Klink, Paul van

doi:10.20417/nzjecol.43.2

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Aerial baiting with sodium fluoroacetate (1080) is used over parts of New Zealand's forested landscape for suppressing populations of possums and ship rats (Eason et al 2011;Kemp et al 2019;Nugent et al 2019) for the benefit of native biodiversity, and for reducing the incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in possums that may infect cattle (Warburton & Livingstone 2015). These operations also remove stoats through secondary poisoning (Dilks et al 2020;Murphy et al 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual aerial 1080 baiting operation removes predators at a large spatial scale

Nichols¹,

Ltd²,

Wellington³

et al. 2021

NZJE

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As New Zealand attempts to become predator free by 2050, transitioning aerial 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) operations from predator control to complete predator removal has become an important research objective. Aerial 1080 operations may not remove every last target animal, but they may be able to remove a very high proportion (> 0.99). We trialled a modified [dual] aerial 1080 operation for the removal of brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), ship rats (Rattus rattus), and stoats (Mustela erminea) at large spatial scale. Our trial involved two toxin applications (TA#1 & TA#2), each preceded by two applications of non-toxic pre-feed bait. Different types of cereal baits and lures were used for each toxin application. Camera traps (n = 142; 200-1431 m asl) were used to detect the target species and to incidentally observe house mouse (Mus musculus), birds, and ungulates across the study area. The operation had no significant impact on the number of cameras detecting most birds and ungulate species; however, house mouse, blackbird (Turdus merula), and red deer (Cervus elaphus) were detected on significantly fewer cameras after TA#1 than before. Numbers of cameras that detected target species were significantly reduced for all three target species after TA#1, and significantly reduced again for possums after TA#2, when no stoats were detected on cameras and a small number of cameras detected rats. Mean relative abundance estimates based on camera trap indices (proportion of camera trap days that target species were detected) showed the operation appears to have removed over 99% of ship rats, stoats, and possums.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual aerial 1080 baiting operation removes predators at a large spatial scale

Nichols¹,

Ltd²,

Wellington³

et al. 2021

NZJE

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“…To plot against a real time scale, we used a generation time of 9 years and a mutation rate of 1.1 × 10 −8 . The generation time was approximated from an age at maturity of 3–4 years (Diamond & Bond, 1999; Kemp et al, 2019; Moorhouse & Greene, 1995) and an adult survival rate of 0.85–0.90, for both species (Dussex & Robertson, 2018; Lande et al, 2003; Leech et al, 2008). We calculated the mutation rate from the substitution rate and divergence time estimated in this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of the “world’s only alpine parrot”: Genomic adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, behaviour and ecology?

et al. 2021

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Climate warming, in particular in island environments, where opportunities for species to disperse are limited, may become a serious threat to cold adapted alpine species. In order to understand how alpine species may respond to a warming world, we need to understand the drivers that have shaped their habitat specialisation and the evolutionary adaptations that allow them to utilize alpine habitats. The endemic, endangered New Zealand kea (Nestor notabilis) is considered the only alpine parrot in the world. As a species commonly found in the alpine zone it may be highly susceptible to climate warming. But is it a true alpine specialist? Is its evolution driven by adaptation to the alpine zone, or is the kea an open habitat generalist that simply uses the alpine zone to, for example, avoid lower lying anthropogenic landscapes?We use whole genome data of the kea and its close, forest adapted sister species, the kākā (Nestor meridionalis) to reconstruct the evolutionary history of both species and identify the functional genomic differences that underlie their habitat specialisations. Our analyses do not identify major functional genomic differences between kea and kākā in pathways associated with high-altitude. Rather, we found evidence that selective pressures on adaptations commonly found in alpine species are present in both Nestor species, suggesting that selection for alpine adaptations has not driven their divergence. Strongly divergent demographic responses to past climate warming between the species nevertheless highlight potential future threats to kea survival in a warming world.

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“…Non-target impacts of various poisons, used to manipulate invasive mammals, on biodiversity has forced some scrutiny of the unintended poisoning of native animals as a procedural control (e.g. Kemp et al 2019). Another example examined whether bird translocations to islands without predators caused a directional selection on a stress response to capture (Adams et al 2013).…”

Section: Robustness Of Recent Field Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robustness of field studies evaluating biodiversity responses to invasive species management in New Zealand

Allen

Forsyth

MacKenzie

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Benefits of invasive species management for terrestrial biodiversity are widely expected and promoted in New Zealand. Evidence for this is presented in policy and scientific reviews of the literature, but the robustness and repeatability of the underpinning evidence-base remains poorly understood. We evaluated the design of field-based studies assessing biodiversity responses to invasive species management in 155 peer-reviewed articles published across 46 journals from 2010 - 2019. Each study was assessed against nine principles of experimental design, covering robustness of sampling and avoidance of bias. These principles are important in New Zealand to detect treatment effects from environmental variability driven by underlying gradients such as soil fertility, climate and disturbance. Fifty two percent of studies defined a sampling universe and 68% of studies specified the treatment. Whereas, 54%, 74%, and 50% of studies did not utilise replication, representatively sample the universe, or quantify invasive species, respectively. Ninety five percent of studies quantified biodiversity responses, although a high proportion of these did not representatively sample replicates. Initial conditions and accounting for effects of experimental implementation were not utilised in 57% and 84% of studies respectively. No studies avoided observer/analyst bias using blinding methods, despite this being widely adopted in other fields. Ordinal logistic regression showed these principles varied in how robustly they were applied among categories of biodiversity responses and invasive species. Our findings suggest that greater attention to experimental design principles is desirable: supported by researchers, funding agencies, reviewers, and journal editors. Greater resources is not necessarily a solution to these design issues. Undertaking fewer studies, that are individually more expensive because they better adhere to experimental design principles, is one alternative. Our intent in this article is to improve the robustness of future field studies for at least some principles. Robust designs have enduring value, reduce uncertainty and increase our understanding of when, where and how often the impacts of invasive species on biodiversity are indeed reversible.

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Kea survival during aerial poisoning for rat and possum control

Cited by 11 publications

References 25 publications

Dual aerial 1080 baiting operation removes predators at a large spatial scale

Dual aerial 1080 baiting operation removes predators at a large spatial scale

Evolution of the “world’s only alpine parrot”: Genomic adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, behaviour and ecology?

Robustness of field studies evaluating biodiversity responses to invasive species management in New Zealand

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