Predation of artificial Xantus's murrelet (Synthliboramphus hypoleucus scrippsi) nests before and after black rat (Rattus rattus) eradication

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 320-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOLLY P. JONES ◽  
R. WILLIAMHENRY ◽  
GREGG R. HOWALD ◽  
BERNIE R. TERSHY ◽  
DONALD A. CROLL
Keyword(s):  
Nest Predation ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Deer Mouse ◽  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Eradication Programme ◽  
Artificial Nests ◽  
Black Rat ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Synthliboramphus Hypoleucus

Introduced rats depredate every life stage of island nesting seabirds, but the extent of predation is rarely quantified. Introduced black rat (Rattus rattus) and native deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus anacapae) predation on Xantus's murrelet (Synthliboramphus hypoleucus scrippsi) nests was experimentally quantified using artificial nests before and after rat eradication on Anacapa Island (California). The staged rat eradication programme provided experimental treatments: in 2002 rats were eradicated on one island (East Anacapa Islet) and remained on two islands (Middle and West Anacapa Islets), providing a control comparison, and, in 2003, rats were eradicated from the remaining islands (Middle and West Anacapa Islets). In 2002, 96% of artificial nests were depredated on control islands (rats present) with rats accounting for most predation. Nest predation on the treatment island (rats eradicated) in 2002 was significantly lower: 8% of artificial nests were depredated, mostly by endemic deer mice. In 2003, following rat eradication on the remaining islands (Middle and West Anacapa Islets), nest predation was reduced from 96% in 2002 to 3% of total nests in 2003. Predation of nests on East Anacapa Islet (rats eradicated in 2002) increased significantly due to reintroduction and recovery of native deer mouse populations, with 23% of artificial nests depredated. The inference is that rat predation on real Xantus's murrelet nests was responsible for the historically low nesting success and small population sizes of breeding murrelets on Anacapa Island. With rats removed, the hatching success of Xantus's murrelet chicks and the number of individuals nesting on Anacapa Island will increase dramatically. Artificial nest studies are particularly well suited to quantifying introduced rat impacts on hole and crevice nesting seabirds and can simultaneously serve as an effective monitoring tool to detect the presence of rats and the recovery of native nest predators.

The Pied Currawong's role in avian nest predation: a predator removal experiment

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham R. Fulton ◽  
Hugh A. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Nest Predation ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Artificial Nests ◽  
Predator Removal ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Eucalypt Woodland ◽  
Avian Nest ◽  
High Level

Pied Currawongs Strepera graculina have been implicated as a major threat to the persistence of small passerines in urban and rural landscapes through their intense nest predation while raising their young. Pied Currawongs have recently increased in abundance and colonized new areas, due to the planting of exotic berry-bearing trees and shrubs. In association with habitat fragmentation, this may have intensified their predatory impact. We measured the rate of predation on 416 artificial nests, using quail and plasticine eggs, in a 240 ha remnant of eucalypt woodland. Nests were placed in one grid from which Pied Currawongs were removed and in one control grid. The level of predation was monitored before and after Pied Currawong removal. Overall, nest predation was extremely high with 91 % of all nests preyed upon in seven days. Moreover, nest predation decreased significantly following Pied Currawong removal, thus identifying them as significant nest predators. However, imprint evidence from plasticine eggs and the remains of real eggs indicate that other animals, particularly other birds, are also important predators. If this high level of nest predation is reflected in real nests and occurs over a number of years, it may lead to low recruitment of open-nesting birds at this site. If it occurs regionally, it could contribute to long term declines of these species. Our findings suggest that even quite large woodland fragments may be too small to sustain many declining bird species.

MODULATION OF TRIGLYCERIDES IN FEMALE RATTUS RATTUS WITH STEROID CONTRACEPTIVE ALGESTONE ACETOPHENIDE (DHPA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
ASHOK KUMAR ◽  
ALPANA PARMAR ◽  
ANAND KUMAR BAJPEYEE
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Type ◽  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Black Rat ◽  
Long Acting ◽  
Steroid Contraceptive

Young female Black rat (Rattus rattus), were administered monthly long acting steroid contraceptive to induce hypertriglyceridemia. It was observed that by 3 weeks of the second injection of estrogen containing mixed type of contraceptive, female rats developed consistent and frank hyperglyceridemia . TG in the treated rats was 195.8 ± 7.44 mg /100 ml as compared to 91.5 ± 6.27 mg/100ml in plasma of the control group.

scholarly journals Do Repugnant Scents Increase Survival of Ground Nests? A Test with Artificial and Natural Duck Nests

2007 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Vanessa B. Harriman ◽  
Justin A. Pitt ◽  
Serge Larivière
Keyword(s):  
Human Hair ◽  
Nest Predation ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Artificial Nests ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Mammalian Predators ◽  
High Predation ◽  
Ground Nesting ◽  
Predation Rates

Ground-nesting birds typically experience high predation rates on their nests, often by mammalian predators. As such, researchers and wildlife managers have employed numerous techniques to mitigate nest predation. We investigated the use of scents as repellents to deter predators from both artificial and natural ground nests. Survival rates of artificial nests did not differ among six groups of substances (Wald ?2 df = 5 = 4.53, P < 0.48); however the chronology of predation among groups differed. A commercial Coyote urine based deterrent (DEER-D-TERTM), human hair, and Worcestershire sauce were depredated faster than the control (F4,5 = 40.3, P < 0.001). Nest survival of natural nests differed among those groups tested (Wald ?2 df = 2 = 11.8, P < 0.005); the eight mothball treatment decreased survival (Wald ?2 df = 1 = 11.5, P < 0.005), which indicated that novel smells may attract predators or result in duck nest abandonment when coupled with natural duck scent. Chronologies of predation events among treatment groups were not different for natural nests (F2,3 = 1.9, P = 0.22). These findings indicate an interaction between novel scents and predator olfactory cues.

Late-Holocene asynchronous extinction of endemic mammals on the eastern Canary Islands

The Holocene ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 801-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Rando ◽  
Josep Antoni Alcover ◽  
Jacques Michaux ◽  
Rainer Hutterer ◽  
Juan Francisco Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
European Contact ◽  
Black Rat ◽  
Local Extinctions ◽  
Ams Dating

The Lava mouse ( Malpaisomys insularis), and the Canarian shrew ( Crocidura canariensis) are endemic of the Eastern Canary Islands and islets. The former is extinct while Canarian shrew survives in the two main islands and two islets. In order to provide insights regarding causes and processes contributing to the extinction of these endemic mammals: (i) we established last occurrence dates for Lava mouse, and first records for two exotic species – House mouse ( Mus musculus) and Black rat ( Rattus rattus) – through direct 14C AMS dating of collagen from bones; (ii) we analysed recent material from Barn owl ( Tyto alba gracilirostris) roosting sites to evaluate its impact on Canarian shrew in the presence of introduced rodents. The new data strongly suggest that the extinction of Lava mouse was the result of an accumulative process of independent disappearances (or ‘local extinctions’) affecting the isolated populations. The timing of the introduction of the Black rat on the main islands (before Middle Age European contact in Lanzarote and after Middle Age European contact in Fuerteventura) matches with the last occurrence dates for the presence of Lava mouse on these islands, and are very probably their cause. The losses of these Lava mouse populations occurred in an asynchronous way, spreading across at least six centuries. On small islands, hyperpredation emerges as the most plausible process to explain the disappearance of the Lava mouse in the absence of rat populations, although stochastic processes can not be definitively excluded.

Introduced predators and cavity-nesting seabirds: unexpected low level of interaction at breeding sites

2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
pp. 1068-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Ruffino ◽  
K. Bourgeois ◽  
E. Vidal ◽  
J. Icard ◽  
F. Torre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Breeding Cycle ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
Breeding Sites ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Black Rat ◽  
Cavity Nesting ◽  
Introduced Predators ◽  
Puffinus Yelkouan ◽  
First Time

The mechanisms by which introduced predators and long-lived seabirds interact and even coexist are still poorly known. Here, the interactions between the widely introduced black rat ( Rattus rattus (L., 1758)) and an endemic Mediterranean cavity-nesting seabird, the yelkouan shearwater ( Puffinus yelkouan (Acerbi, 1827)), were for the first time investigated for a set of 60 suitable breeding cavities throughout the entire breeding cycle of this seabird. Our results pointed out that rat visits to cavities were significantly higher when shearwaters had left the colony for their interbreeding exodus. Among the set of suitable breeding cavities, yelkouan shearwaters preferentially selected the deepest and the most winding cavities for breeding. Very few rat visits were recorded at the shearwater-occupied cavities and no predation event was recorded. These intriguing results reveal a low level of interaction between introduced black rats and yelkouan shearwaters, which may have facilitated their long-term coexistence for thousands of years on some Mediterranean islands.

The ecological impacts of commensal species: black rats, Rattus rattus, at the urban–bushland interface

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Banks ◽  
Helen M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Exotic Species ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Black Rat ◽  
Urban Impacts ◽  
Commensal Species ◽  
Commensal Rodents ◽  
Black Rats

Exotic species have had devastating impacts worldwide and are a major threat to native wildlife. Human commensal species (hereafter commensals) are a special class of exotic species that live largely off the resources associated with human activity. The encroachment of commensals from an urban area into surrounding bushland has been frequently overlooked as an important component of urban impacts, even though human-commensals are common to many urban regions globally. In this review, we present theoretical and empirical evidence for the processes and outcomes occurring when exotic commensal species encroach into native bushland. Specifically we ask when, how and why exotic commensal species encroach into bushland, what determines whether they establish, and what are the ecological consequences. We focus on the black rat, Rattus rattus, arguably the archetypal commensal species with a cosmopolitan distribution and the greatest potential for ecological damage of all the commensal rodents. We expect that the processes that we outline apply to other commensal species more broadly. We argue that commensals are in fact natives of the urban milieu and only become alien when they encroach into peri-urban bushland. We propose that the mechanisms of this encroachment will be different from those of other, non-commensal exotic species because urban areas act as dispersal hubs to overcome many of the barriers of invasion that other exotic species face. We suggest that resource supplementation by urban areas creates a great potential for promoting encroachment, invasion as well as impact. However, biotic and abiotic barriers to invasion are still relevant for commensals, highlighting the need to maintain the integrity of ecosystems and wildlife populations in urban edges so as to prevent commensal incursion. We examine how commensal black rats affect wildlife via three fundamental mechanisms, namely, predation, disease transfer and competition for resources, and also consider their possible positive impacts acting as functional replacements for lost natives. We conclude the review with an outline of research priorities and future directions that are essential for progressing our understanding of the ecology of commensal species.

scholarly journals Seasonal demography of different black rat (Rattus rattus) populations under contrasting natural habitats in Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles, Caribbean)

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-804
Author(s):  
Jean Goedert ◽  
David Cochard ◽  
Arnaud Lenoble ◽  
Olivier Lorvelec ◽  
Benoît Pisanu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Black Rat

Indirect impacts of invasive cane toads (Bufo marinus) on nest predation in pig-nosed turtles (Carettochelys insculpta)

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 349 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Doody ◽  
B. Green ◽  
R. Sims ◽  
D. Rhind ◽  
P. West ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nest Predation ◽  
Bufo Marinus ◽  
Cane Toad ◽  
Relative Population ◽  
Monitor Lizard ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
One Year

The cane toad (Bufo marinus) was introduced into Australia in 1935. Because this toxic frog is novel to the Australian fauna, its introduction has impacted native fauna in a variety of ways. We anticipated a severe decline in the yellow-spotted monitor lizard (Varanus panoptes) associated with the arrival of cane toads along the Daly River, Northern Territory, and predicted a simultaneous impact on nest predation in the pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta) because the lizard is the chief predator of C. insculpta eggs at the site. We surveyed for monitors and cane toads for five years at two sites before and after the arrival of cane toads, and surveyed for turtle nest predation for three years before, and one year after, the arrival of the toads. Collectively, our data and observations, combined with unpublished reports, indicate that: (1) cane toads arrived at our study sites during the wet seasons of 2003–04 and 2004–05; (2) the lizard V. panoptes readily succumbs to cane toad toxins; (3) . panoptes has experienced a marked decline in relative population numbers coincident with the arrival of the toads at the site; and (4) V. panoptes has been reduced to such low numbers that it is currently no longer a significant predator of pig-nosed turtle eggs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document