Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats
Aotearoa–New Zealand has embarked on an ambitious goal: to completely eradicate key invasive mammals by 2050. This will require novel tools capable of eliminating pests on a large scale. In New Zealand, large-scale pest suppression is typically carried out using aerial application of the toxin sodiu...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 |
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/12/3/309/ 2023-08-20T04:09:25+02:00 Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats Tess D. R. O’Malley Margaret C. Stanley James C. Russell agris 2022-01-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Animals; Volume 12; Issue 3; Pages: 309 density eradication invasive species predator-free Rattus rattus rodent sodium fluoroacetate (1080) spatially explicit capture–recapture Text 2022 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 2023-08-01T03:58:25Z Aotearoa–New Zealand has embarked on an ambitious goal: to completely eradicate key invasive mammals by 2050. This will require novel tools capable of eliminating pests on a large scale. In New Zealand, large-scale pest suppression is typically carried out using aerial application of the toxin sodium fluoroacetate (1080). However, as currently applied, this tool does not remove all individuals. A novel application method, dubbed ‘1080-to-zero’, aims to change this and reduce the abundances of target pests to zero or near-zero. One such target is black rats (Rattus rattus), an invasive species challenging to control using ground-based methods. This study monitored and compared the response of black rats to a 1080-to-zero operation and a standard suppression 1080 operation. No difference in the efficacy of rat removal was found between the two treatments. The 1080-to-zero operation did not achieve its goal of rat elimination or reduction to near-zero levels, with an estimated 1540 rats surviving across the 2200 ha treatment area. However, 1080 operations can produce variable responses, and the results observed here differ from the only other reported 1080-to-zero operation. We encourage further research into this tool, including how factors such as ecosystem type, mast fruiting and operational timing influence success. Text Rattus rattus MDPI Open Access Publishing New Zealand Animals 12 3 309 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
density eradication invasive species predator-free Rattus rattus rodent sodium fluoroacetate (1080) spatially explicit capture–recapture |
spellingShingle |
density eradication invasive species predator-free Rattus rattus rodent sodium fluoroacetate (1080) spatially explicit capture–recapture Tess D. R. O’Malley Margaret C. Stanley James C. Russell Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
topic_facet |
density eradication invasive species predator-free Rattus rattus rodent sodium fluoroacetate (1080) spatially explicit capture–recapture |
description |
Aotearoa–New Zealand has embarked on an ambitious goal: to completely eradicate key invasive mammals by 2050. This will require novel tools capable of eliminating pests on a large scale. In New Zealand, large-scale pest suppression is typically carried out using aerial application of the toxin sodium fluoroacetate (1080). However, as currently applied, this tool does not remove all individuals. A novel application method, dubbed ‘1080-to-zero’, aims to change this and reduce the abundances of target pests to zero or near-zero. One such target is black rats (Rattus rattus), an invasive species challenging to control using ground-based methods. This study monitored and compared the response of black rats to a 1080-to-zero operation and a standard suppression 1080 operation. No difference in the efficacy of rat removal was found between the two treatments. The 1080-to-zero operation did not achieve its goal of rat elimination or reduction to near-zero levels, with an estimated 1540 rats surviving across the 2200 ha treatment area. However, 1080 operations can produce variable responses, and the results observed here differ from the only other reported 1080-to-zero operation. We encourage further research into this tool, including how factors such as ecosystem type, mast fruiting and operational timing influence success. |
format |
Text |
author |
Tess D. R. O’Malley Margaret C. Stanley James C. Russell |
author_facet |
Tess D. R. O’Malley Margaret C. Stanley James C. Russell |
author_sort |
Tess D. R. O’Malley |
title |
Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
title_short |
Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
title_full |
Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
title_fullStr |
Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing Two Different Aerial Toxin Treatments for the Management of Invasive Rats |
title_sort |
assessing two different aerial toxin treatments for the management of invasive rats |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
New Zealand |
geographic_facet |
New Zealand |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Animals; Volume 12; Issue 3; Pages: 309 |
op_relation |
Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030309 |
container_title |
Animals |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
309 |
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1774722355873972224 |