Suburban attitudes towards the common brushtail possum<i>Trichosurus vulpecula</i>and the common ringtail possum<i>Pseudocheirus peregrinus</i>in the northern suburbs of Sydney

Russell, Tracey; Bowman, Belinda R.; Herbert, Catherine A.; Kohen, James

doi:10.7882/az.2011.043

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…Using WERS data to mitigate threats to wildlife will be more successful in combination with surveys aimed at understanding the public's values, believes and attitudes towards wildlife and wildlife management. This kind of surveys have allowed the identification of public support for management (e.g., pet containment or leashing) and need for education around the impact of human activities on wildlife in Australia and elsewhere [17,[60][61][62][63][64].…”

Section: Impacts Of Anthropogenic Activities On Wildlife and Their Mi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife Emergency Response Services Data Provide Insights into Human and Non-Human Threats to Wildlife and the Response to Those Threats

2023

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Our transformation of global environments into human-dominated landscapes has important consequences for wildlife. Globally, wildlife is interacting with humans or impacted by human activities, which often results in negative outcomes such as population declines, disruption of social bonds, biodiversity loss, imperilment of threatened species, and harm to individual animals. Human and non-human threats to wildlife can be challenging to quantify and tend to be poorly understood especially over large spatial scales and in urban environments. The extent to which such damage is mitigated by reactive approaches (e.g., wildlife rescue) is also not well understood. We used data from the main state-based Wildlife Emergency Response Services (WERS) in Victoria, Australia to address these issues. The data, which describe tens of thousands of cases of threats to wildlife annually over a ten-year period, allowed a detailed characterisation of the type and extent of threats in the state. We identified the main common and threatened species impacted by various threats and showed that the vast majority of them were anthropogenic (e.g., vehicle collisions, cat attacks, and entanglements). The extent to which different taxonomic groups and species were impacted by various threats differed and threats were dependent on locations. The Greater Melbourne area was identified as a hotspot for threats to wildlife. The WERS was able to source service providers for thousands of animals annually, facilitating their assessment, release into the wild and rehabilitation. However, every year, thousands of animals died or were euthanased and thousands more were left unattended. WERS case reports are increasing and there is a growing service–demand gap. Whilst studies reporting on the demand and response of WERS are rare, situations in other parts of Australia and the world might be similar. This highlights the urgent need to understand and mitigate human and non-human threats to wildlife, particularly in urban environments, where the rate of biodiversity loss is high. We discuss opportunities and barriers to doing so.

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Section: Impacts Of Anthropogenic Activities On Wildlife and Their Mi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife Emergency Response Services Data Provide Insights into Human and Non-Human Threats to Wildlife and the Response to Those Threats

2023

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“…Thus, the temporal comparisons of particular interest are those between species that are similar in diet and/or size, as they may indicate temporal avoidance. Ringtail possums, brushtail possums and southern bobucks, are all folivores, though brushtail and ringtail possums have adapted to urban and agricultural landscapes (Eymann et al 2006;Hill et al 2007;Russell et al 2011). These three species have adapted each their own unique foraging niche through resource partitioning (Gloury 2014).…”

Section: Overlap In Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Camera traps reveal overlap and seasonal variation in the diel activity of arboreal and semi-arboreal mammals

Gračanin

Mikac

2022

Mamm Biol

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Our study aimed to investigate seasonal variation in the activity of arboreal and semi-arboreal mammals and investigate their overlap in temporal activity, as well temporal shifts in activity because of behavioural interference. In our camera trapping study in a fragmented landscape in south-eastern Australia, a total of ten arboreal and semi-arboreal species were found, with 35,671 independent observations recorded over 6517 camera trap nights. All species were found to be nocturnal; however, a notable number of daytime observations were made for several species (i.e. brown antechinus, Antechinus stuartii; sugar glider, Petaurus breviceps; bush rat, Rattus fuscipes; brown rat, Rattus norvegicus). Seasonal variations in diel activity were observed through an increase in crepuscular activity in spring and summer for antechinus, sugar gliders, brown rats, brushtail possums, Trichosurus vulpecula and ringtail possums, Pseudocheirus peregrinus. Diel activity overlap between species was high, that is 26/28 species comparisons had overlap coefficients (Δ) > 0.75. The species pair with the least amount of overlap was between southern bobucks, Trichosurus cunninghami and brown antechinus (Δ4 = 0.66). The species pair with the most overlap was between the native sugar glider and introduced brown rat (Δ4 = 0.93). When comparing the activity of sugar gliders in sites with low and high abundance of brown rats, sugar gliders appear to shift their activity relative to the brown rats. Similarly, behavioural interference was also observed between antechinus and sugar gliders, and when comparing sites of low and high abundance of sugar glider, antechinus had a shift in activity. Our work provides some of the first quantification of temporal patterns for several of the species in this study, and the first for a community of arboreal and semi-arboreal mammals. Our results indicate that some shifts in behaviour are potentially occurring in response to behavioural interference, allowing for coexistence by means of temporal partitioning.

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“…However, where wildlife persist, they are increasingly challenged by having to accommodate humans in their daily routine (Soulsbury & White, ). For some, this creates novel opportunities to gain resources like exploiting waste and refuse (Gabrey, ; Ross, ), opportunities to share homes (Russell, Bowman, Herbert, & Kohen, ), and many positive interactions like supplemental feeding (Orams, ; Plummer, Risely, Toms, & Siriwardena, ). In contrast, many species find sharing space with humans makes life fraught and stressful (Ciuti et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flight responses of eastern gray kangaroos to benign or harmful human behavior

Austin

Ramp

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Globally, wilderness is being converted for rural and agricultural land use. In countryside landscapes, many habitat structures remain intact, providing suitable habitat for wildlife species that can accurately assess novel risks and develop tolerance to benign disturbances. Associative learning that promotes avoidance and also facilitates desensitization to benign disturbance is key to persisting in these landscapes. Conversely, learning to distinguish and avoid negative interactions with humans, like hunting, is vital. To determine if eastern gray kangaroos are capable of learning from previous interactions with humans, we tested the flight responses of wild kangaroos which have previously experienced either low or high frequencies of harmful and benign encounters with humans. We found that eastern gray kangaroos rapidly habituated to benign disturbance as there was no significant difference in assessment distance between groups that previously experienced low or high frequencies of disturbance. The threat of harmful disturbances was not as quickly learnt, as groups that experienced low frequencies of harmful disturbance delayed flight longer than those experiencing frequent harm. We found that the influence of environmental and group parameters on a kangaroo's decision to flee depended on the intent and frequency of previous interactions with humans. Our study indicates that kangaroos are learning from previous encounters with humans, correctly assessing novel risks which may be contributing to their persistence in countryside landscapes.

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Suburban attitudes towards the common brushtail possumTrichosurus vulpeculaand the common ringtail possumPseudocheirus peregrinusin the northern suburbs of Sydney

Cited by 11 publications

References 15 publications

Wildlife Emergency Response Services Data Provide Insights into Human and Non-Human Threats to Wildlife and the Response to Those Threats

Wildlife Emergency Response Services Data Provide Insights into Human and Non-Human Threats to Wildlife and the Response to Those Threats

Camera traps reveal overlap and seasonal variation in the diel activity of arboreal and semi-arboreal mammals

Flight responses of eastern gray kangaroos to benign or harmful human behavior

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