Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Inactivated Mycobacterium Bovis Vaccination On Molokai-Origin Wild Pigs Experimentally Infected With Virulent M. Bovis, Pauline Nol, Morgan Wehte, Richard A. Bowen, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Tyler Thacker, Kristina Lantz, Jack Rhyan, Laurie A. Baeten, Ramón A. Juste, Iker A. Sevilla, Christian Gortazar, Joaquín Vicente

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The wild pig population on Molokai, Hawaii, USA is a possible reservoir for bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, and has been implicated in decades past as the source of disease for the island’s domestic cattle. Heat-inactivated vaccines have been effective for reducing disease prevalence in wild boar in Spain and could prove useful for managing M. bovis in Molokai wild pigs. We designed an experiment to test this vaccine in wild pigs of Molokai genetics. Fifteen 3–4-month-old pigs were orally administered 10⁶–10⁷ colony forming units (cfu) of heat-inactivated M. bovis (Vaccinates; n = 8; 0.2 …

Economic Estimates Of Invasive Wild Pig Damage To Crops In 12 Us States, Sophie Mckee, Aaron Anderson, Keith Carlisle, Stephanie A. Shwiff

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We report the results of a survey on invasive wild pig (Sus scrofa L.) damage and control in 12 US states (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas). The crops chosen for this study represent the “second-tier” in terms of economic importance after the six crops that were the subject of Anderson et al. (2016). The survey was distributed by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) in the summer of 2019 to a sample of producers in each of the states (except California) of the following six crops: hay, pecans (Carya …

Rabies Management Implications Based On Raccoon Population Density Indexes, Dennis Slate, Brandi D. Saidy, Ashlee Simmons, Kathleen M. Nelson, Amy Davis, Timothy P. Algeo, Stacey A. Elmore, Richard B. Chipman

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An estimate or index of target species density is important in determining oral rabies vaccination (ORV) bait densities to control and eliminate specific rabies variants. From 1997–2011, we indexed raccoon (Procyon lotor) densities 253 times based on cumulative captures on 163 sites from Maine to Alabama, USA, near ORV zones created to prevent raccoon rabies from spreading to new areas. We conducted indexing under a common cage trapping protocol near the time of annual ORV to aid in bait density decisions. Unique raccoons (n = 8,415) accounted for 68.0% of captures (n = 12,367). We recaptured raccoons 2,669 times. We …

Individual And Population Fitness Consequences Associated With Large Carnivore Use Of Residential Development, Heather Johnson, David L. Lewis, Stewart W. Breck

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes are likely to serve as population sinks or ecological traps. To understand how plasticity in black bear (Ursus americanus) use of residential development influences their population dynamics, we conducted a 6-yr study near Durango, Colorado, USA. Using space-use data on individual bears, we examined the influence of use of residential …

Effects Of Deepwater Horizon Oil On Feather Structure And Thermoregulation In Gulls: Does Rehabilitation Work?, Katherine Horak, Nicole L. Barrett, Jeremy W. Ellis, Emma M. Campbell, Nicholas G. Dannemiller, Susan A. Shriner

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Impacts of large-scale oil spills on avian species are far-reaching.While media attention often focuses on lethal impacts, sub-lethal effects and the impacts of rehabilitation receive less attention. The objective of our study was to characterize effects of moderate external oiling and subsequent rehabilitation on feather structure and thermoregulation in gulls. We captured 30 wild ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) and randomly assigned each individual to an experimental group: 1) controls, 2) rehabilitated birds (externally oiled, rehabilitated by washing), or 3) oiled birds (externally oiled, not rehabilitated). We externally oiled birds with weathered MC252 Deepwater Horizon oil (water for controls) …

Migratory Flyways May Affect Population Structure In Double‐Crested Cormorants, Steven J.A. Kimble, Brian S. Dorr, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Travis L. Devault

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Double‐crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) recovered from a demographic bottleneck so well that they are now considered a nuisance species at breeding and wintering grounds across the United States and Canada. Management of this species could be improved by refining genetic population boundaries and assigning individuals to their natal population. Further, recent radio‐telemetry data suggest the existence of Interior and Atlantic migratory flyways, which could reduce gene flow and result in substantial genetic isolation. In this study, we used 1,784 individuals collected across the eastern United States, a large panel of microsatellite markers developed for this species, and individuals banded as …

Optimal Bait Density For Delivery Of Acute Toxicants To Vertebrate Pests, Kim M. Pepin, Nathan P. Snow, Kurt C. Vercauteren

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

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 cost-effective 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 …

Brodifacoum Residues In Fish Three Years After An Island-Wide Rat Eradication Attempt In The Tropical Pacific, Shane R. Siers, Aaron B. Shiels, Steven F. Volker, Kristen Rex, William C. Pitt

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive rats are known to threaten natural resources and human health and safety. Island-wide rat eradication attempts have been increasing in number and scale during the past several decades, as has the frequency of eradication success. The most common method to remove all rats from an island is to broadcast anticoagulant rodenticide bait into every rat’s home range on the island. Broadcast of toxicants can put humans and other nontarget species in marine and terrestrial environments at risk of exposure. The persistence of anticoagulant residues is somewhat unknown, particularly in marine environments. Three years after ~ 18,000 kg of 25 …

Local Adaptation Constrains Drought Tolerance In A Tropical Foundation Tree, Kasey E. Barton, Casey Jones, Kyle F. Edwards, Aaron B. Shiels, Tiffany Knight

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Plant species with broad climatic ranges might be more vulnerable to climate change than previously appreciated due to intraspecific variation in climatic stress tolerance. In tropical forests, drought is increasingly frequent and severe, causing widespread declines and altering community dynamics. Yet, little is known about whether foundation tropical trees vary in drought tolerance throughout their distributions, and how intraspecific variation in drought tolerance might contribute to their vulnerability to climate changE.
2. We tested for local adaptation in seedling emergence and establishment with a full-factorial reciprocal transplant experiment including 27 populations and 109,350 seeds along a 3,500 mm precipitation gradient for …

Mixed Ancestry From Wild And Domestic Lineages Contributes To The Rapid Expansion Of Invasive Feral Swine, Timothy J. Smyser, Michael A. Tabak, Chris Slootmaker, Michael S. Robeson Ii, Ryan S. Miller, Mirte Bosse, Hendrik-Jan Megens, Martien A.M. Groenen, Samuel Rezende Paiva, Danielle Assis De Faria, Harvey D. Blackburn, Brandon S. Schmit, Antoinette J. Piaggio

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive alien species are a significant threat to both economic and ecological systems. Identifying the processes that give rise to invasive populations is essential for implementing effective control strategies. We conducted an ancestry analysis of invasive feral swine (Sus scrofa, Linnaeus, 1758), a highly destructive ungulate that is widely distributed throughout the contiguous United States, to describe introduction pathways, sources of newly emergent populations and processes contributing to an ongoing invasion. Comparisons of high-density single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes for 6,566 invasive feral swine to a comprehensive reference set of S. scrofa revealed that the vast majority of feral swine were …

Conspecific Chemical Cues Facilitate Mate Trailing By Invasive Argentine Black And White Tegus, Shannon A. Richard, Isabella M. G. Bukovich, E. A. Tillman, Sanjiv Jayamohan, J. S. Humphrey, Paige E. Carrington, William E. Bruce, Bryan M. Kluever, Michael L. Avery, M. Rockwell Parker

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Squamate reptiles (snakes and lizards) rely on chemical cues from conspecifics to search the environment for potential mates. How such cues are used by invasive species to facilitate reproduction, especially seasonally, is a key question that can inform management practices. The Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae) is an invasive reptile species in south Florida threatening native fauna in biodiverse regions such as Everglades National Park. While some information exists on the reproductive ecology of this species in its native range in South America, the chemical ecology of S. merianae is unclear especially in its invasive range. By testing …

Improving The Accessibility And Transferability Of Machine Learning Algorithms For Identification Of Animals In Camera Trap Images: Mlwic2, Michael A. Tabak, Mohammad S. Norouzzadeh, David W. Wolfson, Erica J. Newton, Raoul K. Boughton, Jacob S. Ivan, Eric Odell, Eric S. Newkirk, Reesa Y. Conrey, Jennifer Stenglein, Fabiola Iannarilli, John Erb, Ryan K. Brook, Amy J. Davis, Jesse Lewis, Daniel P. Walsh, James C. Beasley, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Jeff Clune, Ryan S. Miller

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Motion-activated wildlife cameras (or “camera traps”) are frequently used to remotely and noninvasively observe animals. The vast number of images collected from camera trap projects has prompted some biologists to employ machine learning algorithms to automatically recognize species in these images, or at least filter-out images that do not contain animals. These approaches are often limited by model transferability, as a model trained to recognize species from one location might not work as well for the same species in different locations. Furthermore, these methods often require advanced computational skills, making them inaccessible to many biologists. We used 3 million camera …

Control Or Eradication: Problems In The Management Of Invasive Birds, Michael L. Avery, Chris J. Feare

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Humans have captured, transported and intentionally released wild birds for centuries (Blackburn et al., 2009). Motivations for such purposeful introductions include food (West and Zhou, 2007), religion (Agoramoorthy and Hsu, 2007), sport (McDowall, 1994), biocontrol (Bennett and Hughes, 1959; Kurdila, 1995) and aesthetics (Ryan, 1906; Thomson, 1922). Many purposeful bird introductions were the work of acclimatization societies, particularly in North America, New Zealand and Australia. These societies were formed in the 19th century by European settlers to transport bird species from their homelands in efforts to establish them in the newly settled regions (Thomson, 1922; Dunlap, 1997). As a result …

Population Increases Of Large Birds In North America Pose Challenges For Aviation Safety, Richard A. Dolbeer

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

There is a strong correlation between bird mass and the likelihood of aircraft damage during a bird–aircraft collision. Thus, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established airworthiness standards related to bird mass for engines, airframes, and windshields. Most standards use large (1.8 kg) and medium (1.1 kg) birds as benchmarks (the empennage and certain large turbofan engines use a 3.6-kg bird). There are 20 large (≥1.8 kg) and 16 medium (1.1–1.7 kg) bird species in North America with ≥20 strikes reported for civil aircraft (FAA National Wildlife Strike Database), 1990 to 2018. I analyzed the population changes of these …

Ecological Drivers Of African Swine Fever Virus Persistence In Wild Boar Populations: Insight For Control, Kim M. Pepin, Andrew J. Golnar, Zaid Abdo, Tomasz Podgórski

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Environmental sources of infection can play a primary role in shaping epidemiological dynamics; however, the relative impact of environmental transmission on host-pathogen systems is rarely estimated. We developed and fit a spatially explicit model of African swine fever virus (ASFV) in wild boar to estimate what proportion of carcassbased transmission is contributing to the low-level persistence of ASFV in Eastern European wild boar. Our model was developed based on ecological insight and data from field studies of ASFV and wild boar in Eastern Poland. We predicted that carcass- based transmission would play a substantial role in persistence, especially in low-density …

Influenza A Viruses In Peridomestic Mammals, J. Jeffrey Root, Susan A. Shriner

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

During recent years, serological evidence has shown that a number of peridomestic mammals (e.g., those commonly found in or around human structures) are naturally exposed to influenza A viruses (IAVs). In addition, experimental studies have demonstrated that many of these species can successfully replicate several different IAVs, including IAVs of high consequence to public or agricultural health. The replication of some IAVs within this group of mammals could have implications for biosecurity associated with poultry production and live bird markets in some regions of the world. Given this evidence, the need for further study and understanding of the role that …

Timing And Extent Of Crop Damage By Wild Pigs (Sus Scrofa Linnaeus) To Corn And Peanut Fields, C. M. Boyce, Kurt C. Vercauteren, James C. Beasley

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The global expansion of wild pigs over the last few decades has resulted in an increase in extent and distribution of damages to crops, placing a growing strain on agricultural producers and land managers. Despite the extent of wild pig damage to agriculture, there is little data regarding timing and spatial variability of damage to corn (Zea mays Linnaeus) and we found no data regarding the effect of these factors on peanuts (Arachis hypogaea Linnaeus). Our objective was to determine the timing and extent of wild pig damage to corn and peanut fields, as well as the extent …

Fish-Eating Birds On Catfish Ponds In The Mississippi Delta, Paul Burr, Jimmy Avery, Garrett Street, Bronson Strickland, Brian Dorr

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Catfish acreage in the Mississippi Delta has significantly declined in the past two decades, but cormorant density on catfish ponds has remained the same. One possible explanation is that there are fewer cormorants in the region, and this is supported with decreasing roost counts. Cormorant roost harassment can be even more effective today than in the past, because there is less aquaculture acreage to protect and fewer cormorants to move. Roost harassment is important over the entire winter, but even more so around mid-January when cormorant abundance is greatest and when cormorants are more focused on aquaculture ponds. The addition …

Movement Behavior Of Radio-Tagged European Starlings In Urban, Rural, And Exurban Landscapes, Page E. Klug, H. Jeffrey Homan

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Since their intentional introduction into the United States in the 1800s, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) have become the fourth most common bird species and a nuisance bird pest in both urban and rural areas. Managers require better information about starling movement and habit-use patterns to effectively manage starling populations and the damage they cause. Thus, we revisited 6 radio-telemetry studies conducted during fall or winter between 2005 and 2010 to compare starling movements (n = 63 birds) and habitat use in 3 landscapes. Switching of roosting and foraging sites in habitat-sparse rural landscapes caused daytime (0900–1500 hours) …

Black Vulture Conflict And Management In The United States: Damage Trends, Management Overview, And Research Needs, Bryan M. Kluever, Morgan Pfeiffer, Scott C. Barras, Brett Dunlap, Lee A. Humberg

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Contrary to rapid declines of many vulture (Accipitridae, Cathartidea) species worldwide, black vulture (Coragyps atratus) populations are increasing and expanding their range in North America. Vultures exhibit complex behaviors and can adapt to any human-dominated landscape or land use. These traits, combined with population growth and range expansion, have contributed to increased human–vulture conflicts. Our goal was to summarize the current status and trends in human–black vulture conflicts (hereafter human– vulture conflicts), review available management strategies, identify knowledge gaps, and provide recommendations to enhance management and understanding of this species and the associated conflicts. We found human–vulture conflicts …

Using Bioenergetics And Radar-Derived Bird Abundance To Assess The Impact Of A Blackbird Roost On Seasonal Sunflower Damage, Bonnie A. Clark, Page E. Klug, Phillip M. Stepanian, Jeffrey F. Kelly

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Methods aimed at reducing avian damage to agricultural crops are routinely implemented in situations where efficacy can be assessed by quantifying blackbird (Icteridae) abundance relative to environmental variables and extrapolating to ensuing crop damage. Concomitantly, Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR) data may have potential to enhance crop damage mitigation through improved monitoring of nuisance wildlife populations. We used WSR to derive daily abundance estimates of blackbirds at a fall roost in North Dakota, USA from 2012 to 2019. We integrated these estimates with previously developed bioenergeticseconomic models to estimate local sunflower (Helianthus annuus) damage. The greatest losses usually occurred during …

Cormorant Predation Of Commercial Catfish Aquaculture In The Mississippi Delta, Terrel Christie, Brian Dorr, Luke Roy, Anita M. Kelly, Carole Engle, Paul Burr, Brian Davis, Jonathan Van Senten

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Catfish aquaculture is an important agricultural commodity in Mississippi with most of the production. occurring in the Delta region of the state. A vital factor in managing these farms is reducing fish loss from bird depredation. The most notable bird species that consume catfish are Double-crested Cormorants. These migratory waterbirds arrive in fall and remain in the region throughout winter. Cormorant interactions with catfish aquaculture have previously been studied, but recent changes in the industry warrant collection of new data to understand the dynamic between catfish aquaculture and cormorants. The Southern Regional Aquaculture Center recently funded a study to estimate …

Additive And Non-Additive Responses Of Seedlings To Simulated Herbivory And Drought, Kasey Barton, Aaron B. Shiels

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Drought is a global threat, increasing in severity and frequency throughout tropical ecosystems. Although plants often face drought in conjunction with biotic stressors, such as herbivory or disease, experimental studies infrequently test the simultaneous effects of drought and biotic stress. Because multiple simultaneous stressors may have non-additive and complex effects on plant performance, it is difficult to predict plant responses to multiple threats from research examining one stress at a time. Using an experimental approach in the greenhouse, we investigated potential non-additivity in seedling growth and survival to simulated drought and herbivory across a phylogenetically diverse pool of ten Hawaiian …

Serum Chemistry Values In Wild Black Vultures In Mississippi, Usa, Fred L. Cunningham, Sherman W. Jack, Amanda R. Deese, Eric R. Wengert, Kyle Van Why, Carla L. Huston, Scott Lemmons, Richard B. Minnis

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Vultures (Cathartidae and Accipitridae) play an important role in ecosystem balance by rapidly disposing animal carcasses and thus preventing the potential spread of pathogens. Blood chemistry values provide a means of assessing the health of wildlife and wild animal populations; however, there are significant differences in chemistries among species and when comparing captive and free-living New and Old World vultures. In 2007, we collected blood serum from 30 female and 14 male wild, healthy black vultures (Coragyps atratus) live-trapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services from a power substation in …

Invasive Wild Pigs As Primary Nest Predators For Wild Turkeys, Heather N. Sanders, David G. Hewitt, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan P. Snow

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Depredation of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) nests is a leading cause of reduced recruitment for the recovering and iconic game species. invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are known to depredate nests, and have been expanding throughout the distributed range of wild turkeys in north America. We sought to gain better insight on the magnitude of wild pigs depredating wild turkey nests. We constructed simulated wild turkey nests throughout the home ranges of 20 GPS-collared wild pigs to evaluate nest depredation relative to three periods within the nesting season (i.e., early, peak, and late) and two nest densities (moderate = 12.5-25 …

Gulls As Sources Of Environmental Contamination By Colistin-Resistant Bacteria, Alan B. Franklin, Andrew M. Ramey, Kevin T. Bentler, Nicole L. Barrett, Loredana M. Mccurdy, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Jonas Bonnedahl, Susan A. Shriner, Jeffrey C. Chandler

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In 2015, the mcr-1 gene was discovered in Escherichia coli in domestic swine in China that conferred resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort used in treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in humans. Since then, mcr-1 was found in other human and animal populations, including wild gulls. Because gulls could disseminate the mcr-1 gene, we conducted an experiment to assess whether gulls are readily colonized with mcr-1 positive E. coli, their shedding patterns, transmission among conspecifics, and environmental deposition. Shedding of mcr-1 E. coli by small gull flocks followed a lognormal curve and gulls shed one strain >101 …

Placebo Oral Rabies Vaccine Bait Uptake By Small Indian Mongooses (Herpestes Auropunctatus) In Southwestern Puerto Rico, Are R. Berentsen, Richard B. Chipman, Kathleen M. Nelson, Kenneth S. Gruver, Frank Boyd, Steven F. Volker, Amy J. Davis, Ad Vos, Steffen Ortmann, Amy Gilbert

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) is a rabies reservoir in areas of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, but no rabies vaccination program targeting this host exists. We used two derivatives of iophenoxic acid (IPA) to evaluate placebo oral rabies vaccine bait uptake by mongooses in southwestern Puerto Rico. We hand-distributed baits at an application rate of 200 baits/km² at three, 400 ha, sites during autumn 2016 and spring 2017. Each site contained 90–100 cage traps in a 100 ha central trapping area. We used ethyl-IPA as a biological marker during the autumn and methyl-IPA during the …

Bird-Livestock Interactions Associated With Increased Cattle Fecal Shedding Of Ciprofloxacin-Resistant Escherichia Coli Within Feedlots In The United States, James C. Carlson, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Bledar Bisha, Jeffrey T. Lejeune, Thomas E. Wittum

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This research study was conducted to determine if bird depredation in feedlots is associated with the prevalence of ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli in cattle and to determine if removal of invasive bird species could be an effective management strategy to help reduce ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coliin cattle within the United States. european starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were collected from feedlots within multiple geographic regions within the United States and european starlings within all regions tested positive for ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli, but prevalence differed by region. Total number of birds on feedlots were positively associated with increased cattle fecal shedding of ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli. …

The Role Of European Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris) In The Dissemination Of Multidrug- Resistant Escherichia Coli Among Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Jennifer E. Anders, Nicolas A. Blouin, James C. Carlson, Jeffrey T. Lejeune, Lawrence D. Goodridge, Baolin Wang, Leslie A. Day, Anna M. Mangan, Dustin A. Reid, Shannon M. Coleman, Matthew W. Hopken, Bledar Bisha

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Antimicrobial use in livestock production is a driver for the development and proliferation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Wildlife interactions with livestock, acquiring associated AMR bacteria and genes, and wildlife’s subsequent dispersal across the landscape are hypothesized to play an important role in the ecology of AMR. Here, we examined priority AMR phenotypes and genotypes of Escherichia coli isolated from the gastrointestinal tracts of european starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) found on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). European starlings may be present in high numbers on cAfos (>100,000 birds), interact with urban environments, and can migrate distances exceeding 1,500 km in North …

Predator Scent And Visual Cue Applied To Nest Boxes Fail To Dissuade European Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris) From Nesting, Bradley Blackwell, Thomas W. Seamans, Morgan Pfeiffer, Bruce N. Buckingham

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Indirect predator cues have been shown to enhance perceived nest predation risk in both open-cup and cavity-nesting birds. We hypothesized that scent from the raccoon (Procyon lotor) inside nest boxes, supplemented with raccoon hair as a visual cue on the outside of the box, would enhance perceived risk to the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), resulting in reduced use of treated nest boxes and negative effects on reproduction. The starling is recognized, outside its native range, as a competitor with indigenous cavity nesters and a pest species, and efforts to deter its nesting have generally been unsuccessful. …