Invasive mammal pests impacts on biodiversity
New Zealand’s unique and diverse native species are highly vulnerable to invasive mammals. New Zealand has an excellent record of conserving biodiversity by managing pests at relatively few high-value sites, but conservation strategies centred on single sites face constant pressure of pest reinvasion and risk local, irreversible extinctions of native species.
In this MSI-funded programme we build on New Zealand’s conservation achievements by conducting research to manage threats from pests in a broader landscape context to create resilient networks of sites.
The aim of the programme is to determine when and where to control pests by managing threats to native biota at local and regional scales. It has three main components to:
- develop conceptual frameworks for landscape-based pest animal management
- quantify the impacts of mammal pests on native biota and develop models linking pest abundance to impacts
- measure and model changes in pest species’ abundance under a range of scenarios: natural fluctuations (masts); climate change; in successional landscapes; after pest control; and following reinvasion of pest mammals across control boundaries