Ship rats can roam for more than a kilometre (when there aren’t many of them around)

Publicly released:
New Zealand
PHOTO: Asith costa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90531804
PHOTO: Asith costa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90531804

Researchers radio-tracked 23 adult ship rats on the edge of a forested area in Fiordland that had been treated by an aerial 1080 operation. Over the course of nine months monitoring those rodents that stayed alive, six rats stayed well within their expected range limits, while the other four went the distance and moved anywhere from 657–1516 metres into the previously treated area. The team says its findings demonstrate that ship rats can move large distances in areas where rat density is low and that understanding rates of reinvasion into control areas is critical for gaining an understanding of what drives ship rat population recovery following large-scale operations.

Media release

From:

Journal/
conference:
New Zealand Journal of Ecology
Organisation/s: Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Department of Conservation
Funder: This research was funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) through an Endeavour Grant (contract C09X1805) as part of the More Birds in the Bush programme.
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