Challenges in confirming eradication success of invasive red-eared sliders

García‐Díaz, Pablo; Ramsey, David S. L.; Woolnough, Andrew P.; Franch, Marc; Llorente, Gustavo A.; Montori, Albert; Buenetxea, Xabier; Larrinaga, Asier R.; Lasceve, M.; Álvarez, Alberto García; Traverso, José María; Valdeón, Aitor; Crespo, Ariñe; Rada, Virginia; Ayllón, Enrique; Sancho, Vicente; Lacomba, José Ignacio; Bataller, José Vicente; Lizana, Miguel

doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1480-7

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…It is the invasive turtle of greatest concern globally, with a suite of adverse impacts on native turtles and other species (Ficetola, Rödder, & Padoa‐Schioppa, ; Polo‐Cavia, López, & Martin, ; Ramsay, Ng, O'Riordan, & Chou, ). Removal of non‐native slider populations has been achieved or attempted in Australia (O'Keefe, ), Europe (Valdeón, Crespo‐Diaz, Egaña‐Callejo, & Gosá, ), and the USA (Drost, Lovich, Madrak, & Monatesti, ), but confirming eradication can be difficult (García‐Díaz et al, ). Though T. scipta elegans is a widely recognized biosecurity risk in Australia, the consequences of translocating turtle species that are native to the continent have received little attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a razor's edge: Status and prospects of the critically endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle, Myuchelys georgesi

Chessman

Ruming

Jones

et al. 2020

Aquatic Conservation

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In the summer and autumn of 2015, the Bellinger River snapping turtle (Myuchelys georgesi), a narrow‐range endemic of eastern New South Wales, Australia, suffered mass mortality from epidemic disease, apparently caused by a previously unknown virus. Information on the current population size and structure of M. georgesi, and the body condition and growth of the surviving individuals, is needed to support planning of conservation actions. Population estimates are also needed for a sympatric population of the widely distributed Macquarie turtle (Emydura macquarii), which has probably been introduced to the Bellinger River and may threaten the persistence of M. georgesi through hybridization, competition, and disease transmission. Data from five turtle surveys between November 2015 and November 2018 were used to estimate populations of the two species in the Bellinger River by an analysis based on habitat extent and turtle detectability. Changes in the body condition of M. georgesi and the body growth of both species were also assessed. Current populations of ~150 M. georgesi and ~500 E. macquarii are indicated, although the uncertainty of these estimates is high. The estimate for M. georgesi represents a decline of >90% from the historical population. Moreover, about 88% of the surviving M. georgesi are immature, and only about 5% are mature females. However, the body condition of the survivors has improved recently. Growth models suggest that M. georgesi matures later than E. macquarii, which may provide the latter with a competitive advantage. Evidence presented here does not support a previous hypothesis that M. georgesi were predisposed to disease through malnutrition and consequently reduced immune competence caused by high water temperatures and low river flows. Continuing disease, hybridization, and interspecific competition are probably the greatest threats to the persistence of the species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a razor's edge: Status and prospects of the critically endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle, Myuchelys georgesi

Chessman

Ruming

Jones

et al. 2020

Aquatic Conservation

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“…In general, removing invasive species is difficult, time and labor intensive, and may still fail to extirpate the entire population, particularly in the face of continued introductions (Gaeta et al 2015). In Europe, where RES removal is a widely advocated practice, recent work noted the severe challenges of functionally eradicating introduced RES (Garcia-Diaz et al 2017). As long as RES are readily available in the pet trade, de novo introductions are likely to continue, complicating attempts to successfully eradicate introduced RES populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale experimental removal of non-native slider turtles has unexpected consequences on basking behavior for both conspecifics and a native, threatened turtle

McKenzie

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans; RES) is one of the world’s most invasive species. Native to the central United States, RES are now widely established in freshwater habitats across the globe, largely due to release of unwanted pets. Laboratory and mesocosm experiments suggest that introduced RES are competitively dominant to native turtles, but such competition remains untested in the wild. Here, we experimentally removed introduced RES to test whether they compete for critical basking habitat with native, threatened western pond turtles (Emys marmorata; WPT), a species being considered for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Following removal, we found that both the remaining RES as well as WPT altered their basking distribution but in a manner inconsistent with strong interspecific competition. However, these findings suggest strong intraspecific competition for basking sites amongst RES and that interspecific competition between WPT and introduced RES likely occurs at higher RES densities. Our works suggests RES influence the behavior of native species in the wild and indicates that RES removal may be most beneficial at high RES densities. This experiment highlights the importance of considering experimental venue when evaluating competition between native and non-native species and should encourage conservation biologists to treat removal efforts as experiments.

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“…Second, in situations where sensitivity has been quantified, the sensitivity of traditional survey methods is often found to be low, meaning a large survey effort without captures is required to have high confidence in eradication success (Boakes, Rout, & Collen, 2015;Gu & Swihart, 2004). This has been shown for reptile species, where low capture probabilities mean large trapping efforts are required to confirm species absence (García-Díaz et al, 2017). Many other taxa, particularly elusive species and those in difficult to access locations, are likely to have similarly low capture rates using traditional survey methods (Thompson, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

eDNA surveys to detect species at very low densities: A case study of European carp eradication in Tasmania, Australia

Furlan

Gleeson

Wisniewski

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Eradications of invasive species are usually expensive and difficult to conduct.Knowing when to declare an eradication successful requires distinguishing between failed detection of the target species due to imperfect sensitivity of the detection method and true species absence. This is difficult because the sensitivities of many detection methods are unknown.2. Environmental DNA (eDNA) methods can be used to detect species by analysing DNA present in environmental samples. eDNA has been promoted as a particularly sensitive and cost-effective way to detect species at low densities and, importantly, the sensitivity of eDNA surveys can be quantified. Nevertheless, the effort and costs involved in detecting species at extremely low densities, such as required during eradication, have not been previously calculated.3. We evaluated the sensitivity of eDNA surveys in detecting the invasive European carp, Cyprinus carpio, in two lakes in Tasmania, Australia, one in which carp have been eradicated and a second in which carp are currently being eradicated. We determined the sampling effort and associated cost required to detect the species at very low density in these lakes.

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Challenges in confirming eradication success of invasive red-eared sliders

Cited by 18 publications

References 28 publications

On a razor's edge: Status and prospects of the critically endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle, Myuchelys georgesi

On a razor's edge: Status and prospects of the critically endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle, Myuchelys georgesi

Large-scale experimental removal of non-native slider turtles has unexpected consequences on basking behavior for both conspecifics and a native, threatened turtle

eDNA surveys to detect species at very low densities: A case study of European carp eradication in Tasmania, Australia

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