Invasive Species, Conservation Biology, island arks & zoos

The story of New Zealand

 Broke away from Gondwana supercontinent  80 million years ago during the
cretaceous period
 Had no snake, no mammals  except för bats and seals
 Become a land of birds  71% of bird species in New Zealand were found nowhere
else in the world
 And reptiles  last living “dinosaurs” the tuatara
 Giant flightless insects called “weta” (Wetapunga = world’s largest cricket)
 Bird filled the ecological niches where we might otherwise expect mammal to be 
many animals were flightless and ground living
 Birds took on the role as large herbivores  the Moa (14 species)
 Specialist predators for these herbivores  Haart´s eagle
 Then came human colonization of New Zealand  first Polynesians who became
New Zealand Maori ca. 1350AD
 Between 1350-1750 came the extinction of at least 34 bird species  most was
flightless and small bird
 Human bought with them Polynesian rat or “kiore”  kiore was one of the first
invasive species spreading throughout the south pacific
 Next came European colonization  1790 onwards  much of New Zealand´s
biodiversity remained in 1800  not only more people who came with European
colonization  black and brown rats came with the ships, Australian brushtail
possums were introduced in 1837 and rabbit introduced 1852  they introduced 31
species of mammals to New Zealand
 Between 1850-1970 another 16 spices of birds were lost  the mammals ate the
smaller birds
 Some loss was hastened by collecting  the Huia
 South Island kokako and piopio
 Weasels, stoats, rats and cats  this was the big problem for the birds  rats and
stoats kill females on the nest
 Richard Henry, pioneered island conservation translocations, 1890  he caught 500
kakapo and kiwi and brought them to his island to protect them  in 1900 stoats
swan to the island and within 6 years all kakapo were gone and he abandoned the
island
 Why are stoats so bad for new Zealand  their reproductive biology means that only
1 female need to make it onto an island for a population to establish  male stoats
impregnate baby females before they leave the nest, Female could keep the egg
inside until they get mature
 Until the 1970 it was felt that these few “island arks” where rats and stoats couldn’t
swim to  they started to translocating species and intensively managing them to
help them reproduce  create new “island arks” by eradicating rats and stoats from
the islands  create “mainland island” by controlling/eradicating introduced spices
from large areas from New Zealand
 The story of “old blue”, the Chatham island black robin  by 1976 only 7 black
robins were left in the world (4 males and 3 females)  birds were captured and
shifted to Mangere Island  1979 only 6 birds survived, with only 2 females  they
took the eggs and fostered them into a related spices nests on south east island 
over the nest 8 year from 1 breeding pair to 22 breeding pair  today 250  all
descended from “old blue”, one female
 The story of the kakapo  1960 kakapo only remained in the mountain of fiordland,
captive breeding failed  1970 decided to capture them and relocate them to an
island sanctuary, only a few lonely males remained  1977, 150 kakapo were found
in remote forest on Stewart Island, monitoring showed that feral cats were rapidly
killing them  1980-1990 efforts were made to capture and translocated all
remaining kakapo to two island sanctuaries with no cats  they were not breeding
well, when they did the eggs and chicks were not surviving  Pacific rat (kiore) did
not pose a big threat to large birds, but they discovered they killed the new hatched
chicks and eggs  national kakapo recovery team was created  All birds had
transmitters attached to them , supplementary feeding was trialed to encourage
females to breed  if illness or poor growth in a chick was detected, flown to the
island to take care of them and then released back into the wild  250 alive on 3
islands
 How did they solve the brown rat and stoats’ problem?  “The trolley problem” 
1970 it was thought impossible to remove all rats from an island > 1ha in size, you
only need one pregnant female to survive  1987 Breaksea island was the first
“large” island (26ha) rat eradication  put poisoned baits in tubes so the rats could
get to it and not birds, critical that ALL rats take the bait, later helicopter delivery 
2007 invasive rats have been removed 284 islands representing a conservation area
of 48,000 ha
 Campbell islands, 11,300 ha in the subantarctic  sheep, cats, pigs and rats were
introduced in the 1800 = devastating effects on the vegetation and wildlife  sheep,
cats and pigs were removed via hunting and trapping in the 1980-1990s  Poison
dropped using helicopters to kill the rats that were remaining
 South Georgia island – largest operation tempted  95 ton of bait being dropped 
declared free of rodents in 2018
 Galapagos - using drones to drop poison where helicopters can’t be used
 Macquarie Island (12,800ha)  Macquarie island parakeet, 1820 introduced but
parakeet still remained, 1870 they disappeared  Cats were feeding on the chick of
pinguins and seabirds, they don’t breed during the winter so there wasn’t enough
food for the cats, parakeet where not the primary thing to catch  1870 rabbit were
introduced to the island, which made that cats increased  even if they preferred
 rabbits, they would still take the birds  2000 the last cat was killed  Rabbit
numbers went from 10,000 to 130,000 within a year’s = not good for the
environment, threaten the stability of seabird nest  they used poison to kill the
rabbit and special dogs and hunters to kill the rabbit  took 4 years to find the last
rabbit  Macquarie island is recovering
 Island arks are critical for conservation of endemic species
 1989 in Marpara forest someone decided to do something  52 north-island kokako
remained, they weren’t breeding and no chick for years seen  they studied the
birds, only 5 were females  90% of the nest filed because of rats  the birth of
“mainland island ark” idea, they put traps and poison in the forest to kill the rats and
stoats  in 1994 18 male/female pair, fledged 54 chick  1998 29 male/female
pairs, fledged 65 chicks  1999 stopped trapping and poison  2000 all chick were
killed before leaving the nest  needed to keep doing it
 Then became the evidence needed to start intensive pest control in mainland sites
with good remaining populations of key endemic New Zealand species  all worked
managed by department of conservation (DoC) which is a government department
 What happened?  regional councils and community groups began to protect the
forests with paid staff and volunteers with putting and maintaining trapping and
poisoning grids  shouldn’t focus on the killing, but on the outcome and if it works
 The creation of predator-proof areas for conservation and community education, in
wellington there is a predator-proof fence
 New Zealand has pledged a goal to make the mainland predator free in 2050

What about Australia

 Australia is a continent of mammals (marsupials)  introduction of rabbits, cats, and
foxes, wiped out Australia’s mammals  32 mammal extinction since European
colonization 1788  poisoning foxes and controlling rabbit population number using
biological control agent = myxoma virus released in 1950 and calicivirus released in
1996  over time came less effect on the rabbits
 Different approach in Australia than in New Zealand with community groups
 Bush heritage and the Australian wildlife conservation
 Bus heritage = Bob brown, 1991 bought land in Tasmanian that was going to be sold
to a wood company, he instead bought the land to save the conservation (He had to
borrow money to buy it)  over 1.2 million ha  work in partnership with aboriginal
group and other land owners  they partner with university’s and sciences to work
on the land  intensively manage these areas to restore them  fire management,
weeds, controlling grazing pressure
 Australian wildlife conservancy = Similar that it buys and co-manage land for
conservation, 31 locations  these sanctuaries include predator-proof fenced areas
 Scotia = 8000ha and Newhaven = 9,400ha
Zoos – What role do they play?
 Can be important for providing species for these protected areas and island  good
for conservation
 Zoo conservation program aim to preserve and breed endangered animals in
captivity, who are some point in the future we hope to release back into the wild to
save that species from extinction  Breed animals using genetic pedigrees to guide
who should breed with who to limit inbreeding
 Domestication selection in captivity
 Captive population = Tend to remove mate choice, Natural selection for adaptation
to the captive environment (less fearful animals will do better and breed), population
genetic bottleneck
 Limit the number of generations in captivity  provide female choice of mate if
possible  attempt to get all animals to breed
 If these animals are not intended to be released will be a “permanent” captive
population  allowing natural selection of domestic traits in captivity will improve
their welfare and reduce their stress levels