Predation of threatened fauna by native and introduced predators can drive extinction and prevent population recovery. Most predator management involves exclusion or culling. Evidence suggests that exclusion may have detrimental effects on a prey species' predator awareness. At the same time, culling can cause selection of control‐resistant predators. There is increasing interest in harnessing evolutionary processes to drive adaptation of threatened fauna to cope, but there is limited attention on trying this from the predator direction. We need to shift the survival advantage away from predators that avoid lethal control, and go on to kill, towards those that demonstrate behaviors that reduce impact on threatened fauna. Instead of driving undesirable predator selection, could we select through management actions desirable traits to make them “less lethal” to threatened fauna? We draw on experimental research on predator aversion that suggests there may be an alternative way to mitigate the impacts of predators, while maintaining the learning opportunities of prey species. Using the case study of the invasive red fox in Australia, we propose a conceptual framework within which future research and management could occur to select for these desirable traits in predators and develop practical regimes for predator impact mitigation.
Translocations are an important conservation tool that enable the restoration of species and their ecological functions. They are particularly important during the current environmental crisis. We used a combination of text-analysis tools to track the history and evolution of the peer-reviewed scientific literature on animal translocation science. We compared this corpus with research showcased in the IUCNs Global Conservation Translocation Perspectives, a curated collection of non-peer-reviewed reintroduction case studies. We show that the peer-reviewed literature, in its infancy, was dominated by charismatic species. It then grew in two classical threads: management of the species of concern and management of the environment of the species. The peer-reviewed literature exhibits a bias towards large charismatic mammals, and while these data are invaluable, expansion to under-represented groups such as insects and reptiles will be critical to combating biodiversity loss across taxonomic groups. These biases were similar in the Translocation Perspectives, but with some subtle differences. To ensure translocation science can address global issues, we need to overcome barriers that restrict this research to a limited number of countries.
Invasive predators are responsible for declines in many animal species across the globe. To redress these declines, conservationists have undertaken substantial work to remove invasive predators or mitigate their effects. Yet, the challenges associated with removal of invasive predators mean that most successful conservation programs have been restricted to small islands, enclosures (“safe havens”), or refuge habitats where threatened species can persist. While these approaches have been, and will continue to be, crucial for the survival of many species, in some contexts they may eventually lock in a baseline where native species vulnerable to invasive predators are accepted as permanently absent from the wild (shifting baseline syndrome). We propose an explicit theme in conservation biology termed “coexistence conservation,” that is distinguished by its pursuit of innovative solutions that drive or enable adaptive evolution of threatened species and invasive predators to occur over the long term. We argue evolution has a large role to play but using it to adapt native species to a new environmental order requires a shift in mindset from small, isolated, and short‐term leaps to deliberate, staged steps within a long‐term strategy. A key principle of coexistence conservation is that predation is treated as the threat, rather than the predator, driving a focus on the outcome rather than the agent. Without a long‐term strategy, we face the permanent loss of many species in the wild. Coexistence conservation is a complementary approach to current practice and will play an important role in shifting our current trajectory from continued and rapid invasive predator‐driven defaunation to a world where invasive predators and native prey can coexist.
Invasive mammalian predators have had a devastating effect on native species globally. The European red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one such species where it has been introduced in Australia. A novel but unexplored tactic to reduce the impact of mammalian predators is the use of unrewarded prey odors to undermine the effectiveness of olfactory hunting behavior. To test the viability of
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