Strategic Vertebrate Pest Management Training

Training in vertebrate pest management is in a parlous state worldwide. The level of retained corporate knowledge is continually declining as many senior pest managers leave the workforce and take the skills gained through years of experience with them, leaving a vacuum of appropriate skills in vertebrate pest management. There is a serious lack of training in vertebrate pest management at undergraduate or postgraduate level, and even less that is based on current best practice. In 2008, the Diploma in Conservation and Land Management (Vertebrate Pests) was developed in consultation with state government pest agencies to provide field officers with the skills needed to develop and implement strategic pest management plans. The course is based on the principles of the Australian Pest Animal Strategy and uses case studies from successfully operating programs to explain strategic management of pests. The course is offered through flexible on-line delivery supported by workshops, allowing students to study remotely without having to regularly attend a classroom. In 2010, the Graduate Certificate in Wildlife Management (Invasive Animals) was developed through the University of Canberra. It provides mid and upper level land managers with the skills to identify pest animal problems and develop and implement effective pest management strategies based on best practice. This course is offered through flexible on-line delivery and encourages students to incorporate pest animal management problems faced in their workplace into their studies. For land managers wishing to extend their qualifications in wildlife or pest management past the graduate certificate stage, the University of Canberra is developing graduate diploma and Masters level courses. These higher level qualifications will be designed following input from industry and should be able to be tailored to the individual needs of students

Feral Cats in the Tall Forests of Far East Gippsland, Australia

Much of the research on feral cats in Australia has occurred in the continent’s arid and semi-arid regions. Consequently, little is known about the ecology of feral cats in tall forests. Using a combination of both VHF and ‘store on board’ GPS collars, feral cats were tracked in the forests of Far East Gippsland, Victoria, to investigate both home range size and movement patterns. The use of GPS collars to obtain accurate and high volumes of location data allowed the intra-home range movements of feral cats to be examined in ways not previously possible using conventional VHF radio telemetry. Male cats had significantly larger home ranges (MCP 100, mean ± se: 455 ± 126 ha) than females (105 ± 28 ha). Male home ranges overlapped those of females and female ranges overlapped with neighbouring females. Overlaps in female home ranges, in particular of the core areas, indicate that female cats in Far East Gippsland are tolerant of other females and do not actively exclude them. Feral cats in these productive tall forests have smaller home ranges than those in arid and semi-arid regions where food resources are sparse or limited, but larger ranges than those inhabiting farmland and grassland habitats where food resources are generally more abundant. Location data gathered at three different temporal intervals – 6 hourly, hourly, and every 15 minutes, showed that feral cats utilise a Lévy walk-style searching pattern as they move through their home range. Employing a Lévy walk increases the likelihood of encountering prey items that are distributed sparsely in the environment, in turn maximising the potential hunting return for effort expended. These findings will allow managers to adopt a more targeted approach when undertaking feral cat management programs in these habitats by providing information on where to deploy traps, baits or other control measures

Principles Underpinning Best Practice Management of the Damage Due to Pests in Australia

Principles contained in the 1993 publication “Managing Vertebrate Pests: Principles & Strategies” were developed during a review of past and current pest management practices. They were used to guide the development of a series of management guidelines for our major vertebrate pests – feral pigs, house mice, European rabbits, red fox, feral pigs, feral horses, wild dogs, and carp. The principles have been constantly refined through subsequent on ground experience in working with stakeholders to implement best practice management programs for pest animals. In this paper, we present what we now consider the seven principles that underpin best practice management of pest animals. They are: 1. A pest is human construct. 2. All key stakeholders need to be actively engaged and consulted. 3. Rarely can pests be eradicated. 4. Most pest management needs to focus on the outcome, reduction in damage, not just killing pests. 5. A whole-system approach is required for managing pest damage. 6. Most pest management occurs in ecosystems in which our knowledge is imperfect. 7. An effective monitoring and evaluation strategy is essential for all management interventions. Together, the principles comprise the strategic approach to pest management. We explain the rationale behind these principles and illustrate them with examples

Assessing Risks to Non-Target Species during Poison Baiting Programs for Feral Cats

<div><p>Poison baiting is used frequently to reduce the impacts of pest species of mammals on agricultural and biodiversity interests. However, baiting may not be appropriate if non-target species are at risk of poisoning. Here we use a desktop decision tree approach to assess the risks to non-target vertebrate species in Australia that arise from using poison baits developed to control feral house cats (<i>Felis catus</i>). These baits are presented in the form of sausages with toxicant implanted in the bait medium within an acid-soluble polymer capsule (hard shell delivery vehicle, or HSDV) that disintegrates after ingestion. Using criteria based on body size, diet and feeding behaviour, we assessed 221 of Australia's 3,769 native vertebrate species as likely to consume cat-baits, with 47 of these likely to ingest implanted HSDVs too. Carnivorous marsupials were judged most likely to consume both the baits and HSDVs, with some large-bodied and ground-active birds and reptiles also consuming them. If criteria were relaxed, a further 269 species were assessed as possibly able to consume baits and 343 as possibly able to consume HSDVs; most of these consumers were birds. One threatened species, the Tasmanian devil (<i>Sarcophilus harrisii</i>) was judged as definitely able to consume baits with implanted HSDVs, whereas five threatened species of birds and 21 species of threatened mammals were rated as possible consumers. Amphibia were not considered to be at risk. We conclude that most species of native Australian vertebrates would not consume surface-laid baits during feral cat control programs, and that significantly fewer would be exposed to poisoning if HSDVs were employed. However, risks to susceptible species should be quantified in field or pen trials prior to the implementation of a control program, and minimized further by applying baits at times and in places where non-target species have little access.</p></div

Numbers of native Australian vertebrate species in four taxonomic classes evaluated in this analysis and the numbers within each class assessed as able to consume, or possibly able to consume, sausage-style bait media and toxicant encapsulated in a hard shelled delivery vehicle (HSDV).

<p>Assessments are based on decision criteria in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107788#pone.0107788.s001" target="_blank">Appendixes S1</a>and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107788#pone.0107788.s002" target="_blank">S2</a>, The value in brackets is the percent of the total number assessed for each group.</p><p>Numbers of native Australian vertebrate species in four taxonomic classes evaluated in this analysis and the numbers within each class assessed as able to consume, or possibly able to consume, sausage-style bait media and toxicant encapsulated in a hard shelled delivery vehicle (HSDV).</p

Ecological factors influencing invasive predator survival and movement: insights from a continental-scale study of feral cats in Australia

Feral cats (Felis catus) pose a significant global threat to biodiversity, primarily through predation, disease and competition. A key gap in parameterizing models for improving management decisions for feral cat control relates to factors that drive feral cat survival and movement in the wild. Our study objective was to conduct the first continental-scale analysis of survival rates and displacement distances for feral cats. We collated data on 528 feral cats from telemetry studies in naturally-vegetated landscapes across Australia. Using Cox-proportional hazards models, we investigated the effects of sex, presence of larger predators (dingoes, Canis familiaris and introduced foxes, Vulpes vulpes), presence of introduced prey (rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus), body mass, landscape productivity and feral cat density on feral cat survival. We also analysed the effects of sex, body mass and landscape productivity on feral cat displacement using linear mixed model analysis. Feral cat survival was positively associated with presence of dingoes and increasing body mass, whereas there was no clear association between feral cat survival and sex, presence of rabbits, or cat density. Presence of foxes had a strong negative effect on feral cat survival, but the hazard ratio was associated with considerable uncertainty. Net displacement of male feral cats was nearly two times further than that of females, and the proportion of feral cats making long-distance movements was greater in landscapes with low productivity. Increasing body mass of feral cats was positively related to net displacement, with heavier cats moving further. Analysis of metadata from telemetry studies can provide valuable insights into wildlife survival rates and movement behaviour. Our findings will help inform the development of effective management strategies and improve feral cat management for biodiversity conservation

Direct and sensitive detection of a human virus by rupture event scanning

We have developed a sensitive, economical method that directly detects viruses by making use of the interaction between type 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV1) and specific antibodies covalently attached to the oscillating surface of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The virions were detached from the surface by monotonously increasing the amplitude of oscillation of the QCM, while using the QCM to sensitively detect the acoustic noise produced when the interactions were broken. We term this process rupture event scanning (REVS). The method is quantitative over at least six orders of magnitude, and its sensitivity approaches detection of a single virus particle