Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Despite the large toolbox of methods for control of invasive alien terrestrial ver-
tebrates, it is often inadequate when it comes to the needs peculiar to individual
species, or for particular strategic needs. If we look across the 22 terrestrial verte-
brates listed within the top 100 invasive species (Lowe
et al
. 2000) we can see that
some have either no effective control tools or a limited number which restricts
either the scale at which they can be managed or the feasibility of strategies such as
eradication (Table 12.1). In addition, there are often non-technical societal con-
straints on strategies, especially eradication, e.g. introduced deer are widely seen
as conservation pests in New Zealand but their eradication is opposed by hunters
(Nugent and Fraser 1993).
Table 12.1
Terrestrial vertebrates listed among the top 100 invasive alien spe-
cies and the availability of effective control tools to manage them (ranked, in our
opinion, from absent
=
0; to ineffective
=
+
; to effective at small scales
=
++
;
to highly effective at large scale
=
+++
). Traps include all physical methods
such as traps, snares, fences.
Species
Type of
control tool
'Traps'
Shooting
Poison
Biocontrol
Bull frog (
Rana
catesbeina
)
+
+
0
0
Cane toad
(
Bufo marinus
)
+
+
0
0
Coqui frog
(
Eleutherdactylus
coqui
)
0
0
+
0
Common myna
(
Acridotheres
tristis
)
++
+
++
0
Red-vented bulbul
(
Pycnonotus
cafer
)
0
+
+
0
Starling (
Sternus
vulgaris
)
+
+
++
0
Brown tree snake
(
Boiga
irregularis
)
++
0
++
0
Red-eared slider
(
Trachemys
scripta
)
++
0
0
0
Possum (
Trichosurus
vulpecula
)
++
+
+++
0
Feral cat (
Felis
catus
)
+
+
+++
0
Feral goat (
Capra
hircus
)
++
+++
++
0
