Camera Trapping: A Contemporary Approach to Monitoring Invasive Rodents in High Conservation Priority Ecosystems

Abstract

Invasive rodent species have established on 80% of the world's islands causing significant damage to island environments. Insular ecosystems support proportionally more biodiversity than comparative mainland areas, highlighting them as critical for global biodiversity conservation. Few techniques currently exist to adequately detect, with high confidence, species that are trap-adverse such as the black rat, Rattus rattus, in high conservation priority areas where multiple non-target species persist. This study investigates the effectiveness of camera trapping for monitoring invasive rodents in high conservation areas, and the influence of habitat features and density of colonial-nesting seabirds on rodent relative activity levels to provide insights into their potential impacts. A total of 276 camera sites were established and left in situ for 8 days. Identified species were recorded in discrete 15 min intervals, referred to as ‘events’. In total, 19 804 events were recorded. From these, 31 species were identified comprising 25 native species and six introduced. Two introduced rodent species were detected: the black rat (90% of sites), and house mouse Mus musculus (56% of sites). Rodent activity of both black rats and house mice were positively associated with the structural density of habitats. Density of seabird burrows was not strongly associated with relative activity levels of rodents, yet rodents were still present in these areas. Camera trapping enabled a large number of rodents to be detected with confidence in site-specific absences and high resolution to quantify relative activity levels. This method enables detection of multiple species simultaneously with low impact (for both target and non-target individuals); an ideal strategy for monitoring trap-adverse invasive rodents in high conservation areas.

Incorporating disturbance into trophic ecology: Fire history shapes mesopredator suppression by an apex predator

“…Small mammal cameras were paired with predator cameras, but located 50 m away. Cameras were downward facing and mounted on a wooden stake 1 m from the ground (De Bondi, White, Stevens, & Cooke, 2010;Rendall, Sutherland, Cooke, & White, 2014). Small mammal cameras recorded a 15 s video upon triggering, with a 60-s quiet period between triggers.…”

Under the snow: a new camera trap opens the white box of subnivean ecology

“…Furthermore, camera traps present an opportunity to gain better data on trap‐adverse species (Rendall et al. ), such as the Norwegian lemming. In areas where the species is an important component of the small mammal guild snap trapping of rodents remains the standard; a situation that could be amended by applying camera trapping methods.…”

“…; Rendall et al. ). Camera traps have the potential to enable continuous subnivean observations throughout the winter without destruction of the snow cover.…”

Memantau Dampak REDD+: Koordinasi Lintas Skala dan Integrasi Interdisipliner

“…Telah diakui pula bahwa keanekaragaman hewan kerap terkait erat dan terprediksi oleh keanekaragaman vegetasi; oleh karena itu, survei vegetasi tetap menjadi salah satu alat paling efisien untuk memantau keanekaragaman hayati (Noss, 1990;Noss 1999). Di sisi lain, penggunaan perangkat baru seperti kamera jebak untuk mendapatkan data yang terdistribusi dan berlimpah dengan biaya tidak mahal sepanjang waktu (Ahumada et al, 2013;Rendall et al, 2014), muncul sebagai alat bantu tambahan yang terbukti berguna terutama pada spesies di dalam wilayah luas (yang mungkin tidak mencerminkan tren vegetasi lokal) yang merupakan bagian integral upaya konservasi. Kekayaan pengetahuan ini mengindikasikan bahwa pemantauan keanekaragaman hayati yang teliti dimungkinkan, walaupun tidak lantas mudah atau murah secara teknis.…”