Modeling habituation of introduced predators to unrewarding bird odors for conservation of ground-nesting shorebirds
Authored by M Cecilia Latham, Dean P Anderson, Grant Norbury, Catherine J Price, Peter B Banks, A David M Latham
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1002/eap.1814
Sponsors:
No sponsors listed
Platforms:
Python
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Model Code URLs:
https://datastore.landcareresearch.co.nz/dataset/modelling-habituation-of-introduced-predators
Abstract
Foraging mammalian predators face a myriad of odors from potential prey.
To be efficient, they must focus on rewarding odors while ignoring
consistently unrewarding ones. This may be exploited as a nonlethal
conservation tool if predators can be deceived into ignoring odors of
vulnerable secondary prey. To explore critical design components and
assess the potential gains to prey survival of this technique, we
created an individual-based model that simulated the hunting behavior of
three introduced mammalian predators on one of their secondary prey (a
migratory shorebird) in the South Island of New Zealand. Within this
model, we heuristically assessed the outcome of habituating the
predators to human-deployed unrewarding bird odors before the bird's
arrival at their breeding grounds, i.e., the predators were
``primed.{''} Using known home range sizes and probabilities of
predators interacting with food lures, our model suggests that
wide-ranging predators should encounter a relatively large number of
odor points (between 10 and 115) during 27 d of priming when odor is
deployed within high-resolution grids (100-150 m). Using this
information, we then modeled the effect of different habituation curves
(exponential and sigmoidal) on the probability of predators depredating
shorebird nests. Our results show that important gains in nest survival
can be achieved regardless of the shape of the habituation curve, but
particularly if predators are fast olfactory learners (exponential
curve), and even if some level of dishabituation occurs after prey
become available. Predictions from our model can inform the amount and
pattern in which olfactory stimuli need to be deployed in the field to
optimize encounters by predators, and the relative gains that can be
expected from reduced predation pressure on secondary prey under
different scenarios of predator learning. Habituating predators to odors
of threatened secondary prey may have particular efficacy as a
conservation tool in areas where lethal predator control is not possible
or ethical, or where even low predator densities can be detrimental to
prey survival. Our approach is also relevant for determining interaction
probabilities for devices other than odor points, such as bait stations
and camera traps.
Tags
selection
habitat
New Zealand
Prey
Invasive alien species
Impact
Diet
Foraging behavior
New-zealand
Predator-prey interactions
Pest management
Braided rivers
Mammalian
predators
Nonlethal control
Vulnerable prey
Wildlife management
Hedgehogs erinaceus-europaeus
Central south island
Feral
cats