Mar 12, 2021 07:40 PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscienti...horebirds/
EXCERPTS: Invasive predators, particularly feral and free-roaming house cats, can be found almost everywhere [...] causing many to become endangered or even extinct ... At the same time, the public overwhelmingly wants to protect feral and free-roaming cats from lethal remedies... What can we do to protect native wildlife from this plague of invasive predators without outraging the public?
Inspired by a clever pilot study by scientists at the University of Sydney, a team of scientists in New Zealand wanted to follow up by testing whether a similar experimental scenario could be adopted as a potential non-lethal method for protecting native wild birds from being killed by cats and other invasive predators.
The original 2012 study showed that mammalian predators learn to ignore unhelpful “background noise” scents so they can forage efficiently [...] “It was a pilot study using artificial nests,” wildlife ecologist and lead author of the new study, Grant Norbury ... “We wanted to test it in a real situation at a landscape scale,” Dr Norbury added in email.
[...] Dr Norbury and his collaborators discovered that tricking cats and ferrets using treatments of unrewarded bird odors was easy and inexpensive, with costs of about NZ $33 per hectare (including odor extraction) for 30 days of treatment. The total treatment time used for this study was 66 days.
Are there limitations to this method of trickery? “It depends on a number of things like whether the predators have access to an alternative high value food,” Dr Norbury replied in email. “If they don’t, the method is unlikely to work.”
There is much to recommend this innovative conservation method. Altering cats’ and ferrets’ perceptions of prey availability before shorebirds arrived and began nesting caused these invasive predators to ignore an otherwise meaningful food cue. This innovative, nonlethal and low-tech method for managing problem predators reduced nest predation and improved conservation outcomes for threatened species. Further, it shows promise for managing endangered predators that selectively prey on vulnerable or endangered species... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: Invasive predators, particularly feral and free-roaming house cats, can be found almost everywhere [...] causing many to become endangered or even extinct ... At the same time, the public overwhelmingly wants to protect feral and free-roaming cats from lethal remedies... What can we do to protect native wildlife from this plague of invasive predators without outraging the public?
Inspired by a clever pilot study by scientists at the University of Sydney, a team of scientists in New Zealand wanted to follow up by testing whether a similar experimental scenario could be adopted as a potential non-lethal method for protecting native wild birds from being killed by cats and other invasive predators.
The original 2012 study showed that mammalian predators learn to ignore unhelpful “background noise” scents so they can forage efficiently [...] “It was a pilot study using artificial nests,” wildlife ecologist and lead author of the new study, Grant Norbury ... “We wanted to test it in a real situation at a landscape scale,” Dr Norbury added in email.
[...] Dr Norbury and his collaborators discovered that tricking cats and ferrets using treatments of unrewarded bird odors was easy and inexpensive, with costs of about NZ $33 per hectare (including odor extraction) for 30 days of treatment. The total treatment time used for this study was 66 days.
Are there limitations to this method of trickery? “It depends on a number of things like whether the predators have access to an alternative high value food,” Dr Norbury replied in email. “If they don’t, the method is unlikely to work.”
There is much to recommend this innovative conservation method. Altering cats’ and ferrets’ perceptions of prey availability before shorebirds arrived and began nesting caused these invasive predators to ignore an otherwise meaningful food cue. This innovative, nonlethal and low-tech method for managing problem predators reduced nest predation and improved conservation outcomes for threatened species. Further, it shows promise for managing endangered predators that selectively prey on vulnerable or endangered species... (MORE - details)