Introduced rodents have been eradicated from large numbers of offshore islands using toxic baits;however, toxicbaits have been linked with negative impacts on non-target species. The present study assessed the bait ta...Introduced rodents have been eradicated from large numbers of offshore islands using toxic baits;however, toxicbaits have been linked with negative impacts on non-target species. The present study assessed the bait take oftarget (house mouse, Mus musculus) and non-target (buff banded rail, Rallus philippensis) animals on Northwestand Heron Islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Three non-toxic bait formulations (wax block, pellet and grain) weretested and each was applied at 1 kg ha–1 in six treatment grids. The tracks of animals visiting the baits were identifiedusing 30 tracking stations per treatment grid. A tracking station consisted of a track-board placed in the centre of asand-pad. Mean bait take differed significantly between the formulations: birds took more grain bait than wax blockbait;mice took more wax block than grain bait. Both mice and birds were equally selective of pellet bait. Thus, thefindings indicate that wax blocks are the most suitable formulation for future baiting programs to eradicate mice onthese and other islands.展开更多
基金conducted under Animal Ethics Approval Number SAS/340/06,which was granted by the University of Queensland Animal Ethics Committee.Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services gave us permission to conduct this research on the Coral Cay National Park under research permit number WITK03717006。
文摘Introduced rodents have been eradicated from large numbers of offshore islands using toxic baits;however, toxicbaits have been linked with negative impacts on non-target species. The present study assessed the bait take oftarget (house mouse, Mus musculus) and non-target (buff banded rail, Rallus philippensis) animals on Northwestand Heron Islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Three non-toxic bait formulations (wax block, pellet and grain) weretested and each was applied at 1 kg ha–1 in six treatment grids. The tracks of animals visiting the baits were identifiedusing 30 tracking stations per treatment grid. A tracking station consisted of a track-board placed in the centre of asand-pad. Mean bait take differed significantly between the formulations: birds took more grain bait than wax blockbait;mice took more wax block than grain bait. Both mice and birds were equally selective of pellet bait. Thus, thefindings indicate that wax blocks are the most suitable formulation for future baiting programs to eradicate mice onthese and other islands.
