Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia(theguardian.com)
theguardian.com
Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/19/you-cant-escape-the-smell-mouse-plague-grows-to-biblical-proportions-across-eastern-australia
146 comments
> "The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth and shakes its head wildly."
my dog is a terrier/spitz mix and shows this behavior in play (from the terrier side, the spitz side just makes her pretty =). she'll grab a stick or other small item and shake it wildly while bucking about. most people think it's hilarious until i tell them why she does it. =D
my dog is a terrier/spitz mix and shows this behavior in play (from the terrier side, the spitz side just makes her pretty =). she'll grab a stick or other small item and shake it wildly while bucking about. most people think it's hilarious until i tell them why she does it. =D
Years back I worked on a "configure a dog" educational interactive. IIRC, dogs share a common hunting sequence of behaviors, and some of their domesticated diversity stems from being able to genetically adjust the strength of those behaviors. So a retriever for instance, has the "bite hard" and "shake it" dialed down, and the "carry it home" dialed up.
Sounds like an RPG. haha
Interesting analogy. I recently saw outreach content that described rain/snow/hail formation in terms of a cooking recipe (eg, stir hail several times up and down past the frost line until it grows to ...). I wonder what other familiar frames might be used to scaffold understanding?
Some time back I was pondering how one might teach category theory to kids, by presenting it as cross-cutting patterns in everyday life (eg non-zero one-directional movement along a closed finite path eventually comes back around, as in simple board games, a clock's "we missed 12 today, but we can do it at 12 tomorrow", or "oops, passed an open parking spot - drive around the block".)
Some time back I was pondering how one might teach category theory to kids, by presenting it as cross-cutting patterns in everyday life (eg non-zero one-directional movement along a closed finite path eventually comes back around, as in simple board games, a clock's "we missed 12 today, but we can do it at 12 tomorrow", or "oops, passed an open parking spot - drive around the block".)
My dog is similar and caught a rat once in the garden. Ever heard a rat scream?
I ran around the corner to see what the commotion was and he had it in his jaws shaking his head violently.
Snapped the rats back, then dropped it and walked away. I put the rat out of its misery with a spade then buried it.
Talk about adrenaline!
But yeah rats scream like a little girl screams. It’s fucking horrifying.
I ran around the corner to see what the commotion was and he had it in his jaws shaking his head violently.
Snapped the rats back, then dropped it and walked away. I put the rat out of its misery with a spade then buried it.
Talk about adrenaline!
But yeah rats scream like a little girl screams. It’s fucking horrifying.
Interesting - only time I've heard a rat scream from a dog killing it, it sounded exactly like a squeaky toy.
Which was a bit of a shocking realization.
Which was a bit of a shocking realization.
My 7lb cotton ball Maltese does the same thing. It's hilarious. He also loves to chase squirrels. Same dog yelped like he was being flayed alive when a neighborhood cat playfully swatted his nose. Ridiculous creature.
I love that description, thanks.
Many people forget that dog breeds exist for specific purposes and not just for looks. Just as mastiffs were bread to pull knights from horses, many small dogs were bread for rodent and pest control.
My grandparents had a West Highland Terrier. Gentle little cream puff of a dog -- just like the foofoo dog you see on Cesar dog food. Except she had this little game she liked to play with the voles in the yard where she'd flip them into the air and fatally gore them with her teeth.
This breed was originally created to hunt small rodents on farms and such.
I am weird enough to see an optimalization problem in the video. How many dogs are too many? Obviously, two are better than one, but fifty isn't better than twenty.
Just saying.
Also, the comment saying "that is why dogs like squeaking toys" is spot on, though the idea is probably uncomfortable to regular dog owners.
Just saying.
Also, the comment saying "that is why dogs like squeaking toys" is spot on, though the idea is probably uncomfortable to regular dog owners.
You can also tell that some of the dogs are way more "into it" than others. It's a typical pareto distribution. 20% of the dogs are killing 80% of the rats.
It seems like the pitchforkers are the bottleneck. Probably could be solved with a tractor towing a harrow or plough, provided the dogs know to avoid getting ploughed themselves ;)
Do deaf dogs not like squeaky toys?
If a branch falls in the forest, does the dog already cling to it?
Optimization.
Here's an example of a dog optimizing a simple calculus problem! https://web.williams.edu/Mathematics/sjmiller/public_html/10...
Or this guy, who uses trained mink and dogs for rat (and muskrat) control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvzZLI04_is
I've been ferreting for rabbits and the nets do most of the work, with the ferrets popping out later looking bemused after not catching anything. But those minks are insanely fast and brutal.
There's an entire category of dog bred entirely for that purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratter_(dog)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratter_(dog)
That was an incredibly interesting watch, I had no idea this was a thing.
Is there something special about where they're digging for it to be plagued with such a large amount of rats? It looks like it would take weeks to cover all of their land with this digging + dog method.
Is there something special about where they're digging for it to be plagued with such a large amount of rats? It looks like it would take weeks to cover all of their land with this digging + dog method.
It's not a regular field.
That building you can see at about 30 seconds in is on skids, it is a barn/coop for chickens (or perhaps some other similarly small and light animal).
The bottom of the building is slatted to allow waste and other debris to fall through.
Because it's warm, and there's a constant sufficient supply of food it's an attractive home for rats and mice.
On some kind of regular schedule, the barn will be pulled along to a new location to allow the droppings/waste to be cleaned up, and the rats to be killed off.
That building you can see at about 30 seconds in is on skids, it is a barn/coop for chickens (or perhaps some other similarly small and light animal).
The bottom of the building is slatted to allow waste and other debris to fall through.
Because it's warm, and there's a constant sufficient supply of food it's an attractive home for rats and mice.
On some kind of regular schedule, the barn will be pulled along to a new location to allow the droppings/waste to be cleaned up, and the rats to be killed off.
thanks so much. appreciate this context :)
My guess is that it's a field that was harvested in the past weeks. Harvesting crops makes a lot of edible material fall to the ground. I believe the "leftovers" from the harvest attracts the rats.
It looks maby like the remains of a row of haylage. Basically chopped corn, stalk and all, which is used to feed livestock. Usually you see this stuff in long white bags in the US country side, but there are multiple ways to store it. The stuff smells ferocious and self ferments. So they've probably used up the previous years haylage pile and now they are cleaning house so the rats don't totally mow down the spring planting their about to do.
I think 30 secs in shows a building on skids. It’s probably something like a chicken house that has been moved across the field. The rats are in amongst the old poop.
I wonder how many cats every house needs to rid it of mice. Given the volume, I doubt there are enough cats in Australia to even make a dent.
Cats are incredibly efficient hunters. I’d venture that 1-2 per household would quickly make a huge difference in the population, although a good number of those would have to be outdoor / barn / feral cats to have along term effect.
Disneyland has roughly 400 cats that keep the park largely rodent free, which is a minor miracle given the amount of food there is there.
Disneyland has roughly 400 cats that keep the park largely rodent free, which is a minor miracle given the amount of food there is there.
Plus, you'd see a noticeable decline in local birds, which might not be desirable.
In Australia feral cats are culled since they kill the native animals.
There's even a guy that skins them and turns then into stubby holders.
https://youtu.be/VaB9J8JHVxI
There's even a guy that skins them and turns then into stubby holders.
https://youtu.be/VaB9J8JHVxI
I'm always surprised that cats are able to dominate ecosystems like this. You'd think a local apex predator would have filled that niche and been better adapted to the environment.
Australia's birds never had a local predator like the cat. They just had to keep an eye on the sky for birds of prey and maybe snakes.
It seems that efficient hunters are quite rare to evolve, as there have been lots of ecosystems totally turned on their head with the arrival of a new predator. Stoats, foxes, house cats have all found niches in ecosystems unfilled for hundreds of thousands of years and wiped out many local species. Or maybe the problem is that they are too good, and if left to themselves they would decimate their prey to the point they can't sustain their own numbers and die out; in the long term predators need to exist in an equilibrium.
It seems that efficient hunters are quite rare to evolve, as there have been lots of ecosystems totally turned on their head with the arrival of a new predator. Stoats, foxes, house cats have all found niches in ecosystems unfilled for hundreds of thousands of years and wiped out many local species. Or maybe the problem is that they are too good, and if left to themselves they would decimate their prey to the point they can't sustain their own numbers and die out; in the long term predators need to exist in an equilibrium.
Pound for pound, it's hard to think of a more effective hunter than a cat.
Their skill set is absurd.
Absolutely silent, leap multiple times their body length, jaws & claws, climb, extremely agile / flexible and fast.
Their skill set is absurd.
Absolutely silent, leap multiple times their body length, jaws & claws, climb, extremely agile / flexible and fast.
>Pound for pound, it's hard to think of a more effective hunter than a cat.
Owls. The larger ones will kill even cats.
Owls. The larger ones will kill even cats.
Owls aren't as prolific though if pest control is your goal. A cat will happily kill a dozen mice and eat exactly one. They are adorable murder-machines.
Decent hearing, great eyesight
Marsupial lions were believed to fill this gap in the food chain. Unfortunately, they died out 60,000 years ago. Now cats and foxes are hunting native species, some faster than is sustainable. Eventually an equilibrium will be found, where the wild cat and fox populations can’t be sustained due to over-hunting, but it will likely come at the cost of many native species disappearing.
I’m Turkish and I find it interesting that the US and European cities are dealing with mouse / rat issues. We have tons of cats roaming the streets. I guess that’s the reason but I have ever seen one or maybe 2 live rats in my entire life.
When I visited Athens, the massive colonies of feral cats were very notable. They could take over parks.
American culture is specifically oriented toward preventing this kind of thing from happening. A feral cat is judged to be in need of a home. And there is a very widespread popular effort to say that you are doing something immoral if you don't spay your cat -- if a fertile cat did go feral, it might have children!
American culture is specifically oriented toward preventing this kind of thing from happening. A feral cat is judged to be in need of a home. And there is a very widespread popular effort to say that you are doing something immoral if you don't spay your cat -- if a fertile cat did go feral, it might have children!
In the northeastern US, when I was growing up, I don't think there were a lot of predators of cats. People had "outdoor cats" who would stop by for a free meal, but not live inside.
But coyotes and maybe even wolves have become more common. Such that I remember people remarking about how a housecat wouldn't last long if left to roam. The predators may have increased due to other prey becoming more common as well, like turkeys.
But coyotes and maybe even wolves have become more common. Such that I remember people remarking about how a housecat wouldn't last long if left to roam. The predators may have increased due to other prey becoming more common as well, like turkeys.
I live in a major us city and there has to be 30+ feral cats within my block it's crazy.
Hardly any then compared to Turkey!
There’d be at least a couple hundred in any one block. Thousands at night.
There’d be at least a couple hundred in any one block. Thousands at night.
That would be a pitifully small number compared to a park in Athens.
Some of those folks say they believe in animal rights too.
Keeping someone captive and ending their ability to reproduce seems more like abuse than love.
Keeping someone captive and ending their ability to reproduce seems more like abuse than love.
An animal rights activist is also going to take into account the quality of life of birds and other animals that cats slaughter by the billions.
That's the case for putting all predatory animals in zoos and feeding them vegetarian diets. Ending nature as we know it.
In Israel too. Although they prefer going after rubbish. They say the British Mandate brought them in to deal with the rodent problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_Australia
"Feral cats are one of the major invasive species in Australia"
"In 2016, 29% of Australian households had a domesticated cat"
"Cats in Australia have no natural predators except dingoes and wedge-tailed eagles, and as a result, they are apex predators where neither the dingo nor the eagle exists"
Based on the given figure of 2 million or more feral cats in Australia, each killing 740 wild animals a year, that's 1.5 billion total.
So, given all that, I wonder why the mice are a problem at the moment.
"Feral cats are one of the major invasive species in Australia"
"In 2016, 29% of Australian households had a domesticated cat"
"Cats in Australia have no natural predators except dingoes and wedge-tailed eagles, and as a result, they are apex predators where neither the dingo nor the eagle exists"
Based on the given figure of 2 million or more feral cats in Australia, each killing 740 wild animals a year, that's 1.5 billion total.
So, given all that, I wonder why the mice are a problem at the moment.
Mice are instinctually afraid of the smell of cats, so the cat would not need to actually kill them to get the desired effect.
In this case however when we have hundreds of new mice each day, the fear effect and eating of mice would likely just be a drop in the bucket. The mice from nearby farmland and forests are fleeing starvation. A single house can collect and kill thousands a week and still more are coming, and the flood of mice can start up from apparently nowhere if you live near such areas. The only good thing is that it will stop at some point, and the professional traps can help to keep the situation at bay.
In this case however when we have hundreds of new mice each day, the fear effect and eating of mice would likely just be a drop in the bucket. The mice from nearby farmland and forests are fleeing starvation. A single house can collect and kill thousands a week and still more are coming, and the flood of mice can start up from apparently nowhere if you live near such areas. The only good thing is that it will stop at some point, and the professional traps can help to keep the situation at bay.
> I wonder how many cats every house needs to rid it of mice.
Anecdotally, one.
Anecdotally, one.
Australia actually started a program to kill off feral cat populations a few years ago
Obligatory Andrew Ucles tutorial on cats:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4cTV6mKV6oE
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4cTV6mKV6oE
My dog does this to his stuffed animals, blankets, etc. The agility of the motion is incredible.
Yep and the power and whip they get into it. The plastic end hit my leg once and left a huge welt. Can easy snap a rat spine. It’s completely baked into their dna too. You see the wolf inside.
If you look closely one of the dogs swallows a rat whole. Yum.
That's why these breads were called rattler in german.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattler
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattler
[deleted]
Thanks for sharing this - it is fascinating to see the dogs working together with people. They are very efficient!
I wonder if this is in any way related to the Australian Government deciding in 2015 to try to kill two million feral cats by 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-ki...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-ki...
No, they're trying to eliminate feral cats in the bush and outback areas where they are driving native animal populations to extinction. The mouse problem is in grain farming areas and is cyclical.
That reminds me of CCP/Mao deciding to kill Sparrows to save grains, only to find that they eat insects which left unchecked led to much more damage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
https://www.licas.news/2020/10/07/when-communist-china-waged...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
https://www.licas.news/2020/10/07/when-communist-china-waged...
This seems to be a recurring occurrence in Australia. China is the other country to experience this with some regularity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_plagues_in_Australia
Interestingly, Australia was home to another, similar explosion of small mammals with high reproductive rates and no or few natural enemies: The rabbit plagues. This seems however largely to have been contained with the release of several viruses that targets rabbits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_plagues_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_plagues_in_Australia
Interestingly, Australia was home to another, similar explosion of small mammals with high reproductive rates and no or few natural enemies: The rabbit plagues. This seems however largely to have been contained with the release of several viruses that targets rabbits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_plagues_in_Australia
There is the Dingo, which interesting enough was introduced a few thousand years ago and is not native to Australia. Then some time in the 1800's they introduced 24 rabbits because they thought it would be fun to hunt and that didn't turn out to well. And if that wasn't enough they introduced Camels which now number in the millions. I am wondering what's next?
You forgot cane toads, foxes, cats, wild pigs/boar, water buffalo, and horses. All are non-native and cause damage to the native animals and environment.
People have introduced a lot of animals for their own purposes which are not native to the continent and are now pests in some way.
People have introduced a lot of animals for their own purposes which are not native to the continent and are now pests in some way.
Deer, donkeys, dogs (domestic distinct from Dingoes), goats, plus multiple bird and fish species, insects and plants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_Australia
And literally mixomatosis was researched and “created” circa 1850 to get rid of said Australian rabbits. According to my failing memory, it goes like this: In 2 years 95% Australian rabbits died, and 5% were resisting. Obviously the population regrew. And the researcher tried to bring it back home in UK to get rid of the rabbits in his garden. He succeeded... to kill 95% rabbits of England. Which regrew from the resisting 5%. And same from France.
It’s the disease that makes rabbit have red eyes (very easy to spot from far away). But beware, I’m storytelling from memory, huge details must be wrong.
It’s the disease that makes rabbit have red eyes (very easy to spot from far away). But beware, I’m storytelling from memory, huge details must be wrong.
I just learned about this recently. This is the guy who introduced it into the UK population when trying to reduce the population on his estate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-F%C3%A9lix_Armand-Delille
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-F%C3%A9lix_Armand-Delille
> the Dingo, which interesting enough was introduced a few thousand years ago and is not native to Australia.
This is a pretty stunning standard. By this standard, most of Africa has no native population. Most life anywhere would not qualify as "native".
This is a pretty stunning standard. By this standard, most of Africa has no native population. Most life anywhere would not qualify as "native".
a few thousand years is not that long; humans have been in africa for millions of years and australia for at least 45k. interestingly the dingo looks very similar to many other breeds of feral dogs across the world, from the carolina dog on the american atlantic coast to the jungle-dwelling new guinea singing dog. its form is something like the primordial state of c. familiaris, with probable climactic adaptations.
Well, humans are only considered to date back about 200,000 years, so "millions of years" is stretching it.
Hominids have been in Africa for millions of years, but the Bantu Expansion is just a few thousand years old. It is younger than recorded history -- we have Egyptian records of the peoples to their south, with whom they traded; those people are extinct today. The Bantus reached South Africa at about the same time Europeans did! They colonized it much more successfully, though, largely wiping out the Khoisan who were there before.
Hominids have been in Africa for millions of years, but the Bantu Expansion is just a few thousand years old. It is younger than recorded history -- we have Egyptian records of the peoples to their south, with whom they traded; those people are extinct today. The Bantus reached South Africa at about the same time Europeans did! They colonized it much more successfully, though, largely wiping out the Khoisan who were there before.
anatomically modern humans are thought to date to about 200kya, but early humans like h. erectus go back much further
[deleted]
I’m not sure ‘contained’ is quite the right word to use here. Perhaps populations might be less than what they used to be, but where I live in Sydney, you can barely walk across the road without seeing at least a couple of rabbits. We certainly see more of them than we do of wallabies, possums or any other of the stereotypical Australian animals.
The foxes were keeping the rabbits in check here. Neighbor killed the local foxes, saving their chickens and the smaller marsupials. But the biggest winner was the rabbits where we have dozens and before saw none.
Yeah nah, I live in Melbourne and there are rabbits EVERYWHERE
This happens every 10 years or so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWVw-j8eYSk
There's videos from the last one where there's just entire seas of mice, crawling around everywhere. It's not in this video, but I remember problems like mice straight up eating away at live pigs stuck in their pens.
There's videos from the last one where there's just entire seas of mice, crawling around everywhere. It's not in this video, but I remember problems like mice straight up eating away at live pigs stuck in their pens.
Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, as well as Chin State in Myanmar, have a huge rat problem every N years, related to a bamboo species flowering and fruiting. Extra food, they breed more, flowers/fruits gone, they starve, they raid granaries, fields, houses, etc., people die of famine.
Edit: corrected Assam to other nearby state names, based on:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mautam
Edit: corrected Assam to other nearby state names, based on:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mautam
As an African, my first thought on seeing the pictures was that it’s a shame that the dead mice (that were caught in traps or by dogs) aren’t being used to make pet food or to feed zoo animals after cooking them thoroughly in large pots.
Evidently contemporary baits aren't Warfarin based - that was the active ingredient I recall when growing up - it acts as a blood thinner, and rodents would haemorrhage internally whenever they bumped into something. A fairly unpleasant death.
I'm not sure on the current commercial baits ingredients, but in any case, a good number of the rodents you're seeing in those photos will have been poisoned rather than trapped & drowned, so you definitely don't want your pets eating them.
Having said that, a neighbour told me recently his dog had eaten some baits -- it was a bit slow for a few days, and 'shat green for a week', but seemed to weather it okay.
I'm not sure on the current commercial baits ingredients, but in any case, a good number of the rodents you're seeing in those photos will have been poisoned rather than trapped & drowned, so you definitely don't want your pets eating them.
Having said that, a neighbour told me recently his dog had eaten some baits -- it was a bit slow for a few days, and 'shat green for a week', but seemed to weather it okay.
Is stew a normal thing to feed to zoo animals?
Is there an analogous practice in your region? (Is it also subject to mouse plagues, or is there another way enough rodents are gathered?)
People roast and eat wild rodents like rats as “bush meat” but to my knowledge they don’t eat mice. If we had a plague of mice we would certainly find a way to utilize them.
Separating the digestive system from all those little bodies would be tedious for not a whole lot of gain, a few tens of grams of muscle meat and organs per mouse.
On the TV show "Alive," people were occasionally trapping mice and eating them, and the show would show trivia like how many calories were in the food.
I think it was worth something like 30 calories for a mouse. Virtually nothing.
I think it was worth something like 30 calories for a mouse. Virtually nothing.
If you consider those mice I'd hate to see what you consider to be rats!
What do you mean? These are definitely regular mice, they're small.
Rats are much larger and can grow to quite large!
Rats are much larger and can grow to quite large!
I lived in Kalgoorlie when a mouse plague went through there for a year or two... was pretty bad.
the memory of the smell alone still turns my stomach. Mouse pee is rank.
the memory of the smell alone still turns my stomach. Mouse pee is rank.
Shawn Woods has a YouTube channel dedicated to trapping mice and other rodents. Most of his traps are homemade and don't require uncommon materials. A bucket, ramp, and water does the trick a lot of the time. https://www.youtube.com/user/historichunter
"He said the company's six qualified pilots usually worked in pairs on mice baiting jobs but he had baited 184 hectares with a single drone during one night's operation.
“If you need to drive over it to spread mouse bait, you lose $35 of grain per hectare with wheels running over it,”
https://www.facebook.com/donecommander/
“If you need to drive over it to spread mouse bait, you lose $35 of grain per hectare with wheels running over it,”
https://www.facebook.com/donecommander/
I visited Flinders Island in South Australia on a cruise last month, and they are about to begin a massive campaign to airdrop literally tonnes of poison baits to kill the introduced rodents, then trap and kill the feral cats. All at great federal expense.
They think that mice were reintroduced accidentally by campers, when mice stowed away in camping gear. I was standing there thinking that they could very easily spend millions to eradicate the population only to have it reintroduced intentionally or in another accident six months later.
They think that mice were reintroduced accidentally by campers, when mice stowed away in camping gear. I was standing there thinking that they could very easily spend millions to eradicate the population only to have it reintroduced intentionally or in another accident six months later.
“Bait” means poison, right?
I'd assume so. Which means the first application would kill 80% of the mice, maybe more. That'd would leave a whole bunch of rotting mice bodies to putrify and smell and provide a poisonous feast to birds and other scavangers. A second application might knock off 60%. Then, with each application and multiple generations of mice, you'd end up with mice that are immune. Ultimately, you end up with totally ineffective bait.
Nope, immunity to a given poison doesn't really work like that.
The biggest issue with poisoning operations is when the animals become bait shy, then it dramatically reduces kills, hence the popularity of warfarin for rodents - they don't associate the poisoning with ingesting the bait, so don't become bait shy.
I suspect in smarter social animals, bait shyness could be passed along as communal knowledge. In NZ we also use "pre-feeding" where the baits, without poison, are dropped for some time to teach the target species that they're good eating.
Predator by-kill can be a real issue though, and I guess it depends on whether the predators are pests also - like foxes and cats in Australia, mustelids in NZ. There's a reason NZ is the biggest user of 1080, there's no carnivorous mammals in our forests that we want to stay there, so if they eat a poisoned possum or rodent, bonus.
That said, Australia has carnivorous marsupials that are highly endangered, so it'll be a different ballgame over there.
The biggest issue with poisoning operations is when the animals become bait shy, then it dramatically reduces kills, hence the popularity of warfarin for rodents - they don't associate the poisoning with ingesting the bait, so don't become bait shy.
I suspect in smarter social animals, bait shyness could be passed along as communal knowledge. In NZ we also use "pre-feeding" where the baits, without poison, are dropped for some time to teach the target species that they're good eating.
Predator by-kill can be a real issue though, and I guess it depends on whether the predators are pests also - like foxes and cats in Australia, mustelids in NZ. There's a reason NZ is the biggest user of 1080, there's no carnivorous mammals in our forests that we want to stay there, so if they eat a poisoned possum or rodent, bonus.
That said, Australia has carnivorous marsupials that are highly endangered, so it'll be a different ballgame over there.
[deleted]
I live in Eastern Australia and for the first time ever my dog, a poodle, has killed three mice in the last two weeks in my backyard.
Looks like nature heard them
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56466310
Dozens of people have been rescued from floodwaters, and residents in many low-lying communities of New South Wales have been ordered to leave their homes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56466310
Dozens of people have been rescued from floodwaters, and residents in many low-lying communities of New South Wales have been ordered to leave their homes.
If only they could militarize the emu's against the mice armies.
I'd buy tickets to Emu war part deux.
I'd buy tickets to Emu war part deux.
Token Australian reference for those unaware: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
What if emus and mice unite against the human invader? Aussies wouldn't stand a chance.
This is going to sound silly but I’m absolutely serious: where are the cats?
It sounds like the numbers they're dealing with may be well beyond what could be controlled by cats. Additionally, they may be wary, as Australia is already a case study in what can happen as a result of introducing one species to control another's population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_toads_in_Australia
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
I once had a cat that lived in a work shed. Almost every day he brought me something dead. I hear you but it was just the logical thought to come to mind that I wondered why individuals didn’t have cats, or what the cats were doing. Granted now I’ve got a cat that can’t be bothered to even chase something, she just ..looks at it.
Haha, yeah, fair. I imagine the cats that do live there are probably enjoying themselves through this but have had their capacity overwhelmed.
I was about to say... shouldn't the cane toads take care of that?
There are probably millions of feral cats roaming australia.
Check out the documentary "Running Wild".
Cats are part of the problem, including camels, foxes, horses and other invasive species. They went through a lot of trouble to hunt down cats and contain them. Cats wreck native animal populations. They went so far as to fence off areas and train labrador dogs so that they don't hunt native predators such as the (tiny) marsupial "badgers".
Cats are part of the problem, including camels, foxes, horses and other invasive species. They went through a lot of trouble to hunt down cats and contain them. Cats wreck native animal populations. They went so far as to fence off areas and train labrador dogs so that they don't hunt native predators such as the (tiny) marsupial "badgers".
Cats are not ideal - they destroy native wildlife, and carry disease. Preferable (natives) would be snakes and raptors.
But the problem in any of those cases are the rate of population change. As per TFA, mice are fertile at 6 weeks old. What they don't mention is that their gestation period is 3 weeks, females give birth to up to a dozen pups, and can mate immediately after birth.
So in perfectly suited environments like we have here in Australia now, you're looking at a potential order of magnitude growth every 3-4 weeks.
Cats, snakes, raptors, etc have a near-flat population growth, regardless of the amount of additional food around for them.
But the problem in any of those cases are the rate of population change. As per TFA, mice are fertile at 6 weeks old. What they don't mention is that their gestation period is 3 weeks, females give birth to up to a dozen pups, and can mate immediately after birth.
So in perfectly suited environments like we have here in Australia now, you're looking at a potential order of magnitude growth every 3-4 weeks.
Cats, snakes, raptors, etc have a near-flat population growth, regardless of the amount of additional food around for them.
Australia doesn't have native cat species and introduced feral cats are considered invasive and aggressively hunted and killed by the government. Feral cats decimate indiginous rodents (not the mice here).
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What's the root cause? Not enough birds of prey?
The introduction of mice is the root cause. They're not an indigenous species.
Also the ready food supply provided by the widespread growing of grains. The plague is restricted to grain growing areas, and it's been a bumper Australian crop this year.
The birds of prey don't seem to like living near people. Rabbits are plentiful and food for foxes, mice hit plague proportions in farming communities, but the eagle, hawk, falcon and owl numbers don't seem to increase to match. Other birds not so much, where we have an order of magnitude more smaller birds in our garden compared to the nearby bush land (both native and introduced).
Also the serial poisoning of birds of prey - prosecutions in Tubbut and Violet Town and reports of it being more widespread.
Too many mice.
Something I have always found insane is all the regulations and paperwork hurdles around killing mice in labs. Want to kill 10 mice humanely in a lab then you need to fill out a 60 page report, send it off to an ethics committee for their opinion, and then wait 3 months. Want to kill a few hundred million mice in the wild with a poison that will result is a slow and painful death - go for it.
Eh as a PhD student in genetics, the stuff we do to mice is abominable. Researchers give them incurable insufferable cancers to study complex gene interactions. In my first lab, there were even signs on the mouse cages instructing the veterinarians not to administer eye drops even though the eyes were bulging out of their head. These mice are set up for a lifetime of suffering sometimes.
I think you should get out and see what farmers are doing to the wild mice.
Honestly thought it was an exaggerated title but reading the article says otherwise. That’s a lot of mouse. Is it because the habitat is missing the right predators due to climate change?
A mouse population spike happens every summer/autumn in the wheat belt during and after the harvest. I don't think this year's numbers have anything to do with predator populations, it's probably just warm weather and a good harvest.
Can't speak to that particular environment, but the explosion of lyme disease in Northeastern US over the past few decades or so. Lyme disease is passed by deer ticks which largely live off of mice, which have had decades of under-predation and good fortune as suburbanization creates miniature grasslands that are too disjointed to support the predators that should be eating them.
Another theory re: Lyme disease is that the reforestation of old farmlands supports a higher deer population. Deer (or other large hosts: bear, moose, etc) are an essential part of the deer tick lifecycle, which in turn supports the spread of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
New England has more forest area today than it has since the 1700s.
New England has more forest area today than it has since the 1700s.
I have a coworker that recently moved from near Boston to southern Massachusetts. Absolutely boggles my mind the amount of wildlife he comes across. I thought the East coast was basically fully urbanized.
Living in MA, inside Rt 128 in a fairly urban city; there are foxes in my neighborhood nightly (as seen on my Ring doorbell), Deer and Coyotes in the woods. It's a pretty wild place for 5 miles outside a major east coast city.
In the metro area, we've also have bears and even a "moose on the loose":
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/05/16/bear-in-newton-massac...
https://www.boston.com/news/animals/2016/06/01/moose-on-the-...
Not to mention a mountain lion:
https://patch.com/massachusetts/winchester/winchester-mounta...
In the metro area, we've also have bears and even a "moose on the loose":
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/05/16/bear-in-newton-massac...
https://www.boston.com/news/animals/2016/06/01/moose-on-the-...
Not to mention a mountain lion:
https://patch.com/massachusetts/winchester/winchester-mounta...
I don't know about elsewhere, but the deer population in Pennsylvania has become quite absurd.
You probably don't need a lot of mice with so many of the 4 foot tall rats known as white tailed deer running around.
You probably don't need a lot of mice with so many of the 4 foot tall rats known as white tailed deer running around.
Mice only came to Australia about two centuries ago. The ecology has been ruined by imported species.
A plague tale.
This is one of the result of climate crisis. As complex environments get disrupted over time they become less and less diverse allowing for more booms and busts of single species. The wildfires last year probably wiped out a lot of the mice predators.
Maybe!
But also mice are not native to australia and here is a list of plagues of mice in australia since the 1800s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_plagues_in_Australia
But also mice are not native to australia and here is a list of plagues of mice in australia since the 1800s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_plagues_in_Australia
This reminds me that much of the talk around climate change can't be considered scientific because it's simply not falsifiable. If everything can be attributable to climate change, nothing can be.
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No it isn't.
When you only have a hammer...
(In case you're sensitive, it's farmers using pitchforks to turn soil in a fallow or recently harvested field that is ridden with rats, which flushes the rats. There are a handful of ratting dogs milling about which immediately chase and kill the rats. The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth and shakes its head wildly. This breaks the rat's back and stuns it. It's actually pretty impressive, if violent and macabre.)
I think there are dogs that would find it fun as heck to live in that area of Australia for a few weeks.