Effects of supplementary feed for game birds on activity of brown rats Rattus norvegicus on arable farms
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Effects of supplementary feed for game birds on activity of brown rats Rattus norvegicus on arable farms Siti Md Saad 1 & Roy Sanderson 1
&
Peter Robertson 1 & Mark Lambert 2,3
Received: 9 June 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Brown rats are widespread in agroecosystems, but our understanding of factors affecting their activity is incomplete due to cryptic, nocturnal behaviours. Indirect monitoring methods include tracking plates and camera traps. Supplementary feeding of game birds may provide resources for rats away from farm buildings, allowing them to persist in winter when there is little other food available. Developing reliable methods to monitor such populations will facilitate landscape-scale studies of rat populations in farm environments and aid ecologically based approaches for controlling rats on farms. We compared camera traps and tracking plates to monitor brown rat activity near game bird feeders at a mixed farm in Northumberland, UK. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to compare rat incidence estimated from camera traps and tracking plates. A strong positive relationship was found between the two methods, although tracking plate estimates were less reliable when rat activity was very low. Factors that affected populations of brown rats near game bird feeders were assessed via linear mixed-effect models (LMM) of monthly tracking plate data (October 2017 to September 2018). Populations were highest at the feeders (0 m) compared with further away (10 m, 20 m) and were also higher in periods of cold, wet weather and when more food was available from the feeders. Rodenticide application near feeders did not significantly affect activity, nor did land cover 100 m around each feeder. A highly significant relationship was detected with food supply, suggesting that the use of game bird feeders could potentially have major impacts on rat population dynamics. Keywords Brown rat . Bird feeder . Tracking plates . Supplementary food . Environment factors
Introduction Game birds such as pheasant Phasianus colchicus L. and redlegged partridge Alectoris rufa L. are economically important farm birds in the UK, with over 40 million gamebirds reared Communicated by: Karol Zub Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00539-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Roy Sanderson [email protected] 1
Modelling, Evidence & Policy Research Group, School of Natural & Environmental Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 3NT, UK
2
Animal & Plant Health Agency, Sand Hutton, York YO41 1LZ, UK
3
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Kings Pool, York YO1 7PX, UK
and released into the wild annually (Bicknell et al. 2010; Natural England 2009; Roos et al. 2018). Game bird shooting is worth up to £1.6 billion to the UK economy (PACEC 2014) and is therefore an important additional source of income for many farmers and landowners. However, i
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