Reduced efficacy of baiting programs for invasive species: some mechanisms and management implications

Allsop, Sinead; Dundas, Shannon J.; Adams, Peter J.; Kreplins, T. L.; Bateman, Philip W.; Fleming, Patricia A.

doi:10.1071/pc17006

Cited by 38 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 127 publications

(191 reference statements)

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“…Pests may avoid toxic bait to some degree after exposure and recovery from a sub-lethal dose (Bengsen 2014;Hickling et al 1999), but the impacts on toxicant effectiveness by aversion have not been studied in wild pigs (Allsop et al 2017). Our results showed that if the management target is an 80% reduction or less, the system is fairly robust to bait aversion and bait efficacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Not all individuals will consume toxic baits or consume enough to succumb from the bait (e.g., , and therefore sub-lethal dosing may occur. Furthermore, sub-lethal dosing can reduce the effectiveness of toxic baits over time via learned bait avoidance (Allsop et al 2017). For some pest species, just a few remaining animals on the landscape can re-establish a population quickly (Morrison et al 2007); thus, learned avoidance of toxic baits is important for managers to consider.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimal bait density for delivery of acute toxicants to vertebrate pests

2020

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Oral baiting is a fundamental method for delivering toxicants to pest species. Planning baiting strategies is challenging because bait-consumption rates depend on dynamic processes including space use and demographics of the target species. To determine cost-effective strategies for optimizing baiting, we developed a spatially explicit model of population dynamics using field-based measures of wild-pig (Sus scrofa) space use, bait consumption, and mortality probabilities. The most costeffective baiting strategy depended strongly on the population reduction objective and initial density. A wide range of baiting strategies were cost-effective when the objective was 80% population reduction. In contrast, only a narrow range of baiting strategies allowed for a 99% reduction. Cost-effectiveness was lower for low densities of wild pigs because of the increased effort for locating target animals. Bait avoidance due to aversive conditioning from sub-lethal dosing had only minor effects on cost-effectiveness when the objective was an 80% reduction, whereas the effect was much stronger when the objective was 99% population reduction. Our results showed that a bait-based toxicant could be cost-effective for substantially reducing populations of wild pigs, but for elimination it may be most cost-effective to integrate additional management techniques following initial toxicant deployment. The nonlinear interaction of cost-effectiveness, initial population size, and reduction objective also emphasized the importance of considering the dynamics of space use and bait consumption for predicting effective baiting strategies. Although we used data for an acute toxicant and wild-pig consumption rates, our framework can be readily adapted to other vertebrate pest species and toxicant characteristics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal bait density for delivery of acute toxicants to vertebrate pests

2020

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“…However, requiring a drought prediction of up to a year before baiting would render the forecast skill at the time of implementation to be inadequate. A more useful timescale may be to avoid baiting before the prediction of heavy rainfall, which can diminish the toxicity of uneaten baits for predators (Allsop et al., 2017; Burrows et al., 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological forecasts to inform near‐term management of threats to biodiversity

Tulloch

Hagger

Greenville

2020

Global Change Biology

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Ecosystems are being altered by rapid and interacting changes in natural processes and anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. Uncertainty in historical, current and future effectiveness of actions hampers decisions about how to mitigate changes to prevent biodiversity loss and species extinctions. Research in resource management, agriculture and health indicates that forecasts predicting the effects of near‐term or seasonal environmental conditions on management greatly improve outcomes. Such forecasts help resolve uncertainties about when and how to operationalize management. We reviewed the scientific literature on environmental management to investigate whether near‐term forecasts are developed to inform biodiversity decisions in Australia, a nation with one of the highest recent extinction rates across the globe. We found that forecasts focused on economic objectives (e.g. fisheries management) predict on significantly shorter timelines and answer a broader range of management questions than forecasts focused on biodiversity conservation. We then evaluated scientific literature on the effectiveness of 484 actions to manage seven major terrestrial threats in Australia, to identify opportunities for near‐term forecasts to inform operational conservation decisions. Depending on the action, between 30% and 80% threat management operations experienced near‐term weather impacts on outcomes before, during or after management. Disease control, species translocation/reintroduction and habitat restoration actions were most frequently impacted, and negative impacts such as increased species mortality and reduced recruitment were more likely than positive impacts. Drought or dry conditions, and rainfall, were the most frequently reported weather impacts, indicating that near‐term forecasts predicting the effects of low or excessive rainfall on management outcomes are likely to have the greatest benefits. Across the world, many regions are, like Australia, becoming warmer and drier, or experiencing more extreme rainfall events. Informing conservation decisions with near‐term and seasonal ecological forecasting will be critical to harness uncertainties and lower the risk of threat management failure under global change.

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“…Control operations that only target the mean behavior in a population risk selecting for survivors expressing personality traits that are related to trap or bait aversion (Allsop et al 2017). If these traits are passed on to offspring, the mean expression in a population could shift toward behaviors linked to the avoidance of devices used during control operations (Biro and Post 2008, Allsop et al 2017). In domestic and captive species, a personality shift can occur within a single generation (Faure 1981, Saetre et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing transgenerational transfer of personality in managed wildlife populations: a house mouse control experiment

Johnstone

McArthur

Banks

2020

Ecological Applications

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Pest species control operations are most effective if every individual in a population is targeted. Yet, individual personality drives variation in animal responses to devices such as traps and baits. Failing to account for differences in behavior during control operations may drive a selective removal, resulting in residual animals with biased expressions of personality. If these biased traits are passed onto offspring, control operations would become increasingly problematic. To test if biased trait expressions in founding populations are passed on to offspring, we quantified personality traits in wild‐caught house mice (Mus musculus) and created founder populations selected for biased (high, low) or intermediate expressions of activity. We released the behaviorally biased populations into outdoor yards to breed to the F1 generation and, 10 weeks later, removed the mice and quantified the personality traits of the offspring. Despite the strong personality bias in founder populations, we observed no transgenerational transfer of personality and detected no personality bias in the F1 generation. Our results provide reassuring evidence that a single intensive control operation that selects for survivors with a personality bias is unlikely to lead to a recovering population inherently more difficult to eradicate, at least for house mice.

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Reduced efficacy of baiting programs for invasive species: some mechanisms and management implications

Cited by 38 publications

References 127 publications

Optimal bait density for delivery of acute toxicants to vertebrate pests

Optimal bait density for delivery of acute toxicants to vertebrate pests

Ecological forecasts to inform near‐term management of threats to biodiversity

Testing transgenerational transfer of personality in managed wildlife populations: a house mouse control experiment

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