Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluation Of Oral Baits And Distribution Methods For Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus Harrisii), Sean Dempsey, Ruth J. Pyer, Amy Gilbert, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Jennifer M. Moffat, Sarah Benson-Amram, Timothy J. Smyser, Andrew S. Flies

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Context

Diseases are increasingly contributing to wildlife population declines. Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) populations have locally declined by 82%, largely owing to the morbidity and mortality associated with two independent transmissible devil facial tumours (DFT1 and DFT2). Toxic baits are often used as a management tool for controlling vertebrate pest populations in Australia, but in other areas of the world, oral baits are also used to deliver vaccines or pharmaceuticals to wildlife.

Aim

Our goal was to evaluate the potential use of edible baits as vehicles for vaccine delivery to Tasmanian devils.

Method

We first tested bait palatability with …

End-Permian (252 Mya) Deforestation, Wildfires And Flooding—An Ancient Biotic Crisis With Lessons For The Present, Vivi Vajda, Stephen Mcloughlin, Chris Mays, Tracy D. Frank, Christopher R. Fielding, Allen Tevyaw, Veiko Lehsten, Malcolm Bocking, Robert S. Nicoll

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Current large-scale deforestation poses a threat to ecosystems globally, and imposes substantial and prolonged changes on the hydrological and carbon cycles. The tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia are currently undergoing deforestation with catastrophic ecological consequences but widespread deforestation events have occurred several times in Earth’s history and these provide lessons for the future. The end-Permian mass-extinction event (EPE; ∼252 Ma) provides a global, deep-time analogue for modern deforestation and diversity loss. We undertook centimeter-resolution palynological, sedimentological, carbon stable-isotope and paleobotanical investigations of strata spanning the end- Permian event at the Frazer Beach and Snapper Point localities, in the …

Drought Triggers And Declarations: Science And Policy Considerations For Drought Risk Management, Linda Courtenay Botterill, Michael J. Hayes

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the value of triggers and declarations in the management of drought, bringing together two disciplinary perspectives, those of the public policy scholar and the climate scientist. These two perspectives highlight the complexity of the development and use of triggers in drought risk management by drawing on the experience of the United States, which has the most sophisticated system of drought triggers in the world, and that of Australia that has the most developed and longest standing national drought policy based on principles of risk management. The paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of triggers in managing drought, …

House Cats As Predators In The Australian Environment: Impacts And Management, Christopher R. Dickman

Human–Wildlife Interactions

This paper provides an overview of the predatory activities of the house cat (Felis catus) in Australia, focusing principally on the interactions of domestic and stray cats with native species of prey. Like their free-living, or feral, counterparts, domestic cats take a broad range of prey, with small mammals, birds, and human-derived foods forming the bulk of the diet. Domestic and stray cats have contributed to declines of suburban populations of eastern barred bandicoots (Perameles gunnii) and superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) in Victoria, Australia. The effects of cats on prey communities remain speculative. In …

Late Holocene Island Reef Development On The Inner Zone Of The Northern Great Barrier Reef: Insights From Low Isles Reef, Tracy D. Frank

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A sedimentological and stratigraphic study of Low Isles Reef off northern Queensland, Australia was carried out to improve understanding of factors that have governed Late Holocene carbonate deposition and reef development on the inner to middle shelf of the northern Great Barrier Reef. Low Isles Reef is one of 46 low wooded island-reefs unique to the northern Great Barrier Reef, which are situated in areas that lie in reach of river flood plumes and where inter-reef sediments are dominated by terrigenous mud. Radiocarbon ages from surface and subsurface sediment samples indicate that Low Isles Reef began to form at ca …

Managing Starlings In Australia – Can Drc-1339 Be The Answer?, Tina Bentz, Steven Lapidge, David Dall, Ronald G. Sinclair

Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species

European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are one of the most abundant and widespread bird species on earth. Introduced to Australia in the late 1850s, their highly adaptive ecology has enabled them to become a major pest. Concerns include public health and safety, economic impacts, detrimental environmental effects, and bird strikes at airports. Unfortunately current Australian control methods are ineffective and more efficacious, humane methods need to be developed. A feasibility study was undertaken of the likely risks/benefits of avicide DRC 1339 (3-chloro-4-methylbenzenamine hydrochloride) in Australia. This included a risk-analysis, a multi-industry survey and non-toxic bait trials to assess target-specificity. …

Multimodel Inference And The Understanding Of Complexity, Discontinuity, And Normadism, Craig R. Allen, Denis A. Saunders

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Nomadism has received surprisingly little attention in the ecological literature, and further work in this area is needed. The results of Woinarski’s reanalysis of our research findings are broadly similar to our own, and they support our original interpretation. However, his presentation is confusing and difficult to interpret.We used an information-theoretic approach to multimodel selection. We a priori defined plausible candidate models relating the variables described in our original paper or Woinarski’s reanalysis to the phenomenon of nomadism. We tested models that investigate nomadism as a function of nectivory, granivory, diet diversity, mixed diet, distance to body mass aggregation edge, …

Variability Between Scales: Predictors Of Nomadism In Birds Of An Australian Mediterraneanclimate Ecosystem, Craig R. Allen, Denis A. Saunders

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Nomadism in animals is a response to resource distributions that are highly variable in time and space. Using the avian fauna of the Mediterranean-climate region of southcentral Australia, we tested a number of variables to determine if they predicted nomadism. These variables were species body mass, the distance in body mass terms to the edge of a body mass aggregation, and diet (for example, seeds, invertebrates, nectar, or plants). We utilized two different classifications of the avifauna that diverged in their definition of nomadic to build two different predictive models. Using both classifications, distance to the edge of a body …

Impacts Of House Mice On Crops In Australia - Costs And Damage, Peter R. Brown, Grant R. Singleton

Human Conflicts with Wildlife: 2002 Symposium

Rodents cause serious losses to crops in many different parts of the world. The house mouse (Mus domesticus, Schwarz and Schwarz 1943) is a serious pest to agriculture in Australia. The impacts of house mouse damage to crops in Australia were examined. Plagues of mice (>1,000 mice/ha) cause enormous economic and social stress to rural communities in Australia. The mouse plague in 1993/94 caused about US$60 million in damage to crops, intensive livestock industries, and rural communities. The impact of mouse plagues is generally well understood, but there is a dearth of knowledge about the relationship between …

Review Of Regulatory-Imposed Marketing Constraints To Repellent Development, Judith M. Hushon

National Wildlife Research Center Repellents Conference 1995

The purpose of this paper is to review the regulatory issues concerned with marketing repellents and to try to identify areas where changes may be needed. Repellents are covered unevenly by the various Federal and State pesticide laws. These laws were generally formulated to deal with pesticides and other highly toxic chemicals used to control "pests." However, repellents discourage pests due to their disagreeable properties rather than their toxicity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently introduced reduced risk pesticide guidance which limits reporting requirements and hastens review. Those states that follow the Federal lead do not represent a problem. …

The Tiger's Back "A Report On Australian Organizations For Metropolitan Planning Administration", Robert D. Kuzelka

Conservation and Survey Division

The Australian town planning scene presents many interesting and unusual aspects to the city planner from the United States of America. Aspects which because of familiarity and proximity may not strike the Australian town planner as being either interesting, or unusual. This report will discuss some of these aspects as they seem to be affecting each major metropolitan region which includes the capital city in each of the six Australian States. Throughout the report, "metropolitan region" refers to the unit, or units of Local Government which are included in the planning area of each organization which is considered in this …