An assessment of seasonal bait uptake by individual grey squirrels to develop a delivery system for oral contraceptives,Pest Management Science

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An assessment of seasonal bait uptake by individual grey squirrels to develop a delivery system for oral contraceptives
Pest Management Science ( IF 3.8 ) Pub Date : 2024-09-09 , DOI: 10.1002/ps.8379
Sarah E Beatham _{1,

2} , Philip A Stephens ₂ , Dominic Goodwin ₃ , Julia Coats ₁ , Erin Thomas ₁ , Izzy Rochester ₁ , Giovanna Massei ₄

Affiliation

Globally, human–wildlife conflicts continue to increase, owing to human population growth and expansion. Many of these conflicts concern the impacts of invasive non-native species. In the UK, the invasive, non-native grey squirrel Sciurus carolinensis negatively affects tree health and has caused the decline of the native red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris. Oral contraceptives are being developed to manage the impacts of the grey squirrel. To be effective, contraceptives will need to be deployed at a landscape scale, and will require a delivery system that is practical and economically viable. Understanding grey squirrel feeding behaviour is important so that delivery methods can be designed so that a sufficient number of target individuals receive an effective contraceptive dose at a time of year that will ensure their infertility throughout peak times of breeding. The main aims of this study were to assess how sex, season, squirrel density and bait point density influenced; (1) the probability of a squirrel visiting a feeder and (2) the amount of bait consumed from feeders. Field trials were conducted on six woodland populations of squirrels in three seasons, with four days of bait deployment via purpose-designed squirrel-specific bait hoppers with integrated PIT-tag readers. It was possible to deliver multiple doses on most days to most male and female grey squirrels, with bait deployment more likely to be effective in spring, immediately before the second annual peak in squirrel breeding, followed by winter, immediately before the first peak in breeding. The results from this study could be used to design methods for delivering oral contraceptive baits to grey squirrels in the future and the methods used could be applied to other small mammal species and other bait delivery systems. © 2024 Crown copyright and The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.

中文翻译：

对个别灰松鼠季节性诱饵摄取的评估，以开发口服避孕药的输送系统

在全球范围内，由于人口增长和扩张，人类与野生动物的冲突持续增加。其中许多冲突涉及外来入侵物种的影响。在英国，入侵的非本地灰松鼠卡罗林松鼠(Sciurus carolinensis)对树木健康产生负面影响，并导致本地红松鼠松鼠(Sciurus vulgaris)数量减少。正在开发口服避孕药来控制灰松鼠的影响。为了有效，避孕药具需要在景观范围内部署，并且需要一个实用且经济可行的输送系统。了解灰松鼠的摄食行为非常重要，以便设计递送方法，以便足够数量的目标个体在一年中的某个时间接受有效的避孕剂量，从而确保它们在繁殖高峰期不育。本研究的主要目的是评估性别、季节、松鼠密度和诱饵点密度的影响； (1) 松鼠访问喂食器的概率和 (2) 从喂食器消耗的诱饵量。在三个季节对六个林地松鼠种群进行了现场试验，通过专门设计的松鼠专用诱饵料斗和集成的 PIT 标签阅读器进行了四天的诱饵部署。可以在大多数日子里对大多数雄性和雌性灰松鼠施用多次剂量，在春季，即松鼠繁殖的第二个年度高峰之前，投放诱饵更有可能有效，然后是冬季，即在松鼠繁殖的第一个高峰之前。这项研究的结果将来可用于设计向灰松鼠递送口服避孕药诱饵的方法，并且所使用的方法可应用于其他小型哺乳动物物种和其他诱饵递送系统。 © 2024 皇家版权和作者。 《害虫管理科学》由 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 代表化学工业协会出版。本文经 HMSO 财务总监和苏格兰国王印刷厂许可发表。

更新日期：2024-09-09

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