Managing Australia's Pest Animals

Abstract

Pest animals are but one of many factors that influence the desired outcome from managing natural resource based systems, whether for production or conservation purposes. Others include diseases, weeds, financial resources, weather and fire management. To be effective, an integrated and systematic approach is required, and the principles and strategic approach outlined in this book can also be used to plan and manage the damage due to other factors.
 Managing Australia's Pest Animals includes case studies of successful and unsuccessful pest management strategies and covers a range of topics, including the history of pest management, current best practice principles, and guidelines for planning and applying strategic pest management approaches to effectively reduce pest damage. This book is the first clear and comprehensive guide to best practice pest management in Australia and will benefit students and trainers of pest managers, landholders, people involved in natural resource management, and industry and government pest management staff.

Ethical Treatment of Invasive and Native Fauna in Australia: Perspectives through the One Welfare Lens

“…For example, the science of environmental management requires exponents to examine the justifications and efficacy of the programs that they implement and inflict on wild animals. Problematically, people often devote insufficient effort to rigorous design when studying interventions [ 41 , 42 ]; to establishing whether the goals that were set were achieved [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]; and to assessing the welfare outcomes of animals on the receiving end of our actions (but see [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]). The voice of compassionate conservation maintained that these transgressions occur partly because people rely too heavily on norms to drive science and at the cost of their values.…”

“…Animal welfare science is needed to measure animal welfare effects and alert people when their actions are effective. Knowing why one intervenes in the first place is often an aspect of wildlife management not fully established from the outset [ 44 ]. The impacts of interventions should be measured and used in the decision-making [ 45 , 62 , 63 ].…”

Challenges to the co‐management of biodiversity in a reflexive modernity

“…Such debate is occurring in Australia despite it having both a very large conservation reserve estate, covering almost 20% of the continent and extensive public investment into policy and practice (Australian Government, 2020;Ward et al, 2019). At least four factors are together leading to arguments that Australian ecosystems are in crisis: inadequate incorporation of key ecosystems (Waldron et al, 2017); widespread invasive plant and animal impacts (Braysher, 2017); changing climatic and disturbance regimes (Mackey et al, 2008;Mellin et al, 2019); and the degradation of waterways (for example, Kingsford et al, 2017). Simultaneously, environmental agencies are under immense financial pressure, with Australia listed among the bottom 40 countries in the world for public conservation investment (Tennent & Lockie, 2013;Wintle et al, 2019).…”

Evaluating the effects of landscape structure on the recovery of an invasive vertebrate after population control

“…Invasive alien species, the subset of alien species that spread and successfully establish populations throughout a recipient landscape, are a major contributor to the current biodiversity crisis (Bellard et al 2016). Despite the promise shown by novel techniques such as gene-editing (Piaggio et al 2017) for eradicating invasive species, long-term control for maintaining population densities below a certain threshold remains the main strategy to manage the impacts of invasive species over large landscapes (With 2002; Lurgi et al 2016; Braysher 2017). Control is justified by empirical density-impact curves, which describe the relationship between the invasive species density and the damage caused (Yokomizo et al 2009; Ricciardi et al 2013; Norbury et al 2015).…”

“…Control is justified by empirical density-impact curves, which describe the relationship between the invasive species density and the damage caused (Yokomizo et al 2009; Ricciardi et al 2013; Norbury et al 2015). Population suppression, based on density-impact curves to define target thresholds, is currently considered the best practice in invasive species management at landscape levels whenever eradication is deemed unfeasible (Bomford and O’Brien 1995; Braysher 2017; Kopf et al 2017).…”