A comparative assessment of potential conditioned taste aversion agents for vertebrate management

Gill, Elaine L.; Whiterow, Anne; Cowan, David P.

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(99)00122-7

Cited by 29 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Inducing such an aversion response might provide a humane (non-lethal) means of controlling wildlife damage to livestock and crops (e.g. Ziegler et al 1982;Gustavson & Gustavson 1985;Gill et al 2000;Baker et al 2008). CTA also might be used to mitigate problems posed by invasive species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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School for Skinks: Can Conditioned Taste Aversion Enable Bluetongue Lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) to Avoid Toxic Cane Toads (Rhinella marina) as Prey?

2011

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The invasion of cane toads (Rhinella marina) through Australia imperils native predators that are killed if they consume these toxic anurans. The magnitude of impact depends upon the predators’ capacity for aversion learning: toad impact is lower if predators can learn not to attack toads. In laboratory trials, we assessed whether bluetongue lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) – a species under severe threat from toads – are capable of learned taste aversion and whether we can facilitate that learning by exposing lizards to toad tissue combined with a nausea‐inducing chemical (lithium chloride). Captive bluetongues rapidly learned to avoid the ‘unpalatable’ food. Taste aversion also developed (albeit less strongly) in response to meals of minced cane toad alone. Our data suggest that taste aversion learning may help bluetongue lizards survive the onslaught of cane toads, but that many encounters will be fatal because the toxin content of toads is so high relative to lizard tolerance of those toxins. Thus, baiting with nausea‐inducing (but non‐lethal) toad products might provide a feasible management option to reduce the impact of cane toad invasion on these native predators.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous studies, LiCl has been used to create CTA in reptiles (Burghardt et al 1973;Paradis & Cabanac 2004) as well as in mammals and birds (e.g. Ziegler et al 1982;Gustavson & Gustavson 1985;Dimmik & Nicolaus 1990;Gill et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School for Skinks: Can Conditioned Taste Aversion Enable Bluetongue Lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) to Avoid Toxic Cane Toads (Rhinella marina) as Prey?

2011

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“…It is orally-effective and regarded as relatively safe, producing low mammalian mortality: oral LD50 is 2.7g/kg body weight (Dilov et al 1981). Thiabendazole induces a robust CTA after a single oral dose (Nachman & Ashe 1973; O’Donnell, Webb & Shine 2010) and is physically stable at ambient conditions in the bait substrate (Gill, Whiterow & Cowan 2000; Massei, Lyon & Cowan 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bangers and cash: Baiting efficiency in a heterogeneous population.

Indigo

Smith

Webb

et al. 2018

Preprint

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25• Context: The uptake of baits is a key variable in management actions aimed at the 26 vaccination, training, or control of many vertebrate species. Increasingly, however, it is 27 appreciated that individuals of the target species vary in their likelihood of taking baits. To 28 optimise a baiting program, then, we require knowledge, not only on the rate of bait uptake, 29 and how this changes with bait availability, but also knowledge on the proportion of the 30 target population that will take a bait. 31• The invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina) is a major threat to northern quolls (Dasyurus 32 hallucatus), which are poisoned when they attack this novel toxic prey item. Conditioned 33 taste aversion baits (cane toad sausages) can be delivered in the field to train individual 34 northern quolls to avoid toads. 35• Methods: Here we report on a large-scale field trial across eleven sites across one large 36 property in Western Australia. Camera trapping and statistical modelling was used to 37 estimate the proportion of baitable animals in the population, and the proportion of these 38 that were baited at varying bait availabilities. 39• Results: Population estimates varied at each site from 3.5 (±0.76 SD) to 18 (± 1.58 SD) 40 individual quolls per site, resulting in a range across sites of 0.6-4 baits available per 41 individual. Bait uptake increased with increasing bait availability. 42• We also estimate that only 62% of individual quolls are baitable, and that a baiting rate of 3 43 baits per individual (rather than per area) will result in almost all of these baitable 44 individuals being treated. 45• We compared our statistical method with prior data informing the probability of being 46 baitable; and with probability of being baitable set to 1; this resulted in largely differing 47 estimates in relation to an appropriate baiting rate. 48• Synthesis and applications: Data and models such as ours provide wildlife managers with 49 information critical to informed decision making and are fundamental to estimate the cost-50

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“…It is fast acting and peak concentration occurs in the plasma one hour after consumption (Tocco et al 1966). Thiabendazole has produced strong aversions to treated foods in lab rats (Gill, Whiterow & Cowan 2000; Massei & Cowan 2002), wolves ( Canis lupus ) (Gustavson, Gustavson & Holzer 1983; Ziegler et al 1983), and black bears ( Ursus americanus ) (Ternent & Garshelis 1999). Thiabendazole induces a robust CTA after a single oral dose (Nachman & Ashe 1973; O'Donnell, Webb & Shine 2010) and is physically stable at ambient conditions in the bait substrate (Gill, Whiterow & Cowan 2000; Massei, Lyon & Cowan 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not such silly sausages: Northern quolls exhibit aversion to toads after training with toad sausages

Indigo

Smith

Webb

et al. 2017

Preprint

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The invasion of toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina) is a major threat to northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) which are poisoned when they attack this novel prey item. Quolls are now endangered as a consequence of the toad invasion. Conditioned taste aversion can be used to train individual quolls to avoid toads, but we currently lack a training technique that can be used at a landscape scale to buffer entire populations from toad impact. Broad scale deployment requires a bait that can be used for training, but there is no guarantee that such a bait will ultimately elicit aversion to toads. Here we test a manufactured bait—a ‘toad sausage’—for its ability to elicit aversion to toads in northern quolls. To do this, we exposed one group of quolls to a toad sausage and another to a control sausage and compared the quolls’ predatory responses when presented with a dead adult toad. Captive quolls that consumed a single toad sausage showed substantially reduced interest in cane toads, interacting with them for less than half the time of their untrained counterparts and showing substantially reduced attack behaviour. We also quantified bait uptake in the field, by both quolls and non-target species. These field trials showed that wild quolls were the most frequent species attracted to the baits, and that approximately 61% of quolls consumed toad-aversion baits when first encountered. Between 40-68% of these animals developed aversion to further bait consumption. Our results suggest that toad-aversion sausages can be used to train wild quolls to avoid cane toads. This opens the possibility for broad-scale quoll training with toad aversion sausages: a technique that may allow wildlife managers to prevent quoll extinctions at a landscape scale.

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A comparative assessment of potential conditioned taste aversion agents for vertebrate management

Cited by 29 publications

References 22 publications

School for Skinks: Can Conditioned Taste Aversion Enable Bluetongue Lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) to Avoid Toxic Cane Toads (Rhinella marina) as Prey?

School for Skinks: Can Conditioned Taste Aversion Enable Bluetongue Lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) to Avoid Toxic Cane Toads (Rhinella marina) as Prey?

Bangers and cash: Baiting efficiency in a heterogeneous population.

Not such silly sausages: Northern quolls exhibit aversion to toads after training with toad sausages

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