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Publications (61)
Using geospatial data of wildlife presence to predict a species distribution across a geographic area is among the most common tools in management and conservation. The collection of high‐quality presence–absence (PA) data through structured surveys is, however, expensive, and managers usually have access to larger amounts of low‐quality presence‐o...
Avian influenza (AI) is an important disease that has significant implications for animal and human health. High pathogenicity AI (HPAI) has emerged in consecutive seasons within the UK to cause the largest outbreaks recorded. Statutory measures to control outbreaks of AI virus (AIV) at poultry farms involve disposal of all birds on infected premis...
The use of georeferenced information on the presence of a species to predict its distribution across a geographic area is one of the most common tools in management and conservation. The collection of high-quality presence-absence data through structured surveys is, however, expensive, and managers usually have more abundant low-quality presence-on...
The appropriate response for controlling an invasive non-native species depends on the extent to which its invasion has progressed, which can be revealed by information on its distribution and abundance. Reeves’ muntjac is a native deer to China and Taiwan, but has been introduced and become well-established in Great Britain. Moreover, in recent ye...
Understanding the distributions and density of wild mammals is integral to the implementation of wildlife management strategies, particularly for controlling diseases and conservation management. Recent advances in camera trap technology together with the development of the Random Encounter Model have provided a non-invasive method for estimating m...
We consider the motivations, strategies, and costs involved in invasive mammal management undertaken in the UK. Widespread established invasive mammals require long‐term management to limit damage or spread, but ongoing management is costly and complex. Long‐term management is most effective where it is applied at a landscape scale, but this requir...
Estimates of quantities needed to plan invasive species control, such as population size, are always uncertain; this is an issue that can become a problem when mishandled in ecological science and its communication. The complexities of incorporating uncertainty into sophisticated decision‐support tools may be a barrier to their use by decision make...
We are entering an era where species declines are occurring at their fastest ever rate, and the increased spread of non‐native species is among the top causes. High uncertainty in biological processes makes the accurate prediction of the outcomes of management interventions very challenging. Adaptive management (AM) offers solutions to reduce uncer...
Maximising the detection of a target species reduces the uncertainty of survey results and can improve management outcomes. Deer (Cervidae) populations are managed worldwide due to their impacts on anthropocentric interests. In the UK, deer can only lawfully be shot during the daytime, from 1 h before sunrise to 1 h after sunset, when deer activity...
Aim:
Decisions on wildlife conservation, management, and epidemiological risk are best based on robust evidence. The continual improvement of species distributions, such that they can be relied upon in decision-making, is important. Here we seek to refine aspects of a generic modelling approach and improve the utility of species distribution maps....
Road mitigation infrastructure for pond‐breeding amphibians aims to provide a safe and sustainable passage for individuals between critical habitat patches. However, relatively little is known about how amphibians interact with mitigation systems because of the challenges of documenting movements at sufficiently large sample sizes. The effect of re...
Robust tools are needed to prioritise the management of invasive non-native species (INNS). Risk assessment is commonly used to prioritise INNS, but fails to take into account the feasibility of management. Risk management provides a structured evaluation of management options, but has received little attention to date. We present a risk management...
Coexistence of ecologically similar species is sustained by niche partitioning, a fundamental element of which is diet. Overlapping of resource requirements between sympatric species can create interspecific competitive or facilitative effects on the foraging behaviour of herbivores. Brown hares (Lepus europaeus) and European rabbits (Oryctolagus c...
Population size estimates are an integral part of any species conservation or management project. They are often used to evaluate the impact of management intervention and can be critical for making decisions for future management. Distance sampling and camera trapping of unmarked populations are commonly used for such a task as they can yield rapi...
Amphibian populations are highly vulnerable to road mortality and habitat fragmentation caused by road networks. Wildlife road tunnels are considered the most promising road mitigation measure for amphibians yet generally remain inadequately monitored, resulting in mixed success rates in the short-term and uncertain conservation benefits in the lon...
T. cristatus and L. vulgaris annual captures
Increasing urbanisation and growth of many wild animal populations can result in a greater frequency of human-wildlife conflicts. However, traditional lethal methods of wildlife control are becoming less favoured than non-lethal approaches, particularly when problems involve charismatic species in urban areas. Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) excavat...
Brief description of each study site
Brief description of each study site.
Descriptions of case studies on licensed attempts to exclude badgers from urban setts
Tri-axial accelerometer tags provide quantitative data on body movement that can be used to characterize behaviour and understand species ecology in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Using tags on wild terrestrial mammals, especially smaller species, in natural settings has been limited. Poor battery power also reduced the amount of data col...
In recent decades, many ungulate populations have changed dramatically in abundance, resulting in cascading effects across ecosystems. However, studies of such effects are often limited in their spatial and temporal scope. Here, we contrast multi-species composite population trends of deer-sensitive and deer-tolerant woodland birds at a national sc...
Mycobacteria have been associated with human and animal disease for millennia. This book is founded on a principle of cross-disciplinary inclusion and the belief that by bringing together all members of the mycobacterial research community we could achieve a better understanding of mycobacteria and the diseases caused by them, and thus contribute t...
Global increases in road networks have been matched by traffic flows and are implicated in declines of many sensitive species. Impacts on wildlife by linear development features such as roads include mortality due to vehicle collisions and secondary effects such as preventing traditional movements or severing links between populations. European leg...
Brown hares and rabbits are widely distributed in agricultural landscapes across the UK, occupy similar habitats and have considerable dietary overlap. However, as agriculture in the UK has intensified, hares have declined and become a species of conservation concern while rabbits have become an increasing pest. An intensive study of hares, rabbits...
Habitat improvements through agri‐environment schemes are the most important tool for reversing biodiversity declines in European farmland. However, little is known about their impact on mammals, including the brown hare, a priority species for conservation in the UK. We studied radio‐collared hares for 13 months in a mixed agricultural area using...
Control of livestock diseases can become com-plicated when wild animals are involved. The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is considered the principle wildlife host of Mycobacterium bovis (which causes bovine tuber-culosis, bTB) in Great Britain and Ireland, but wild deer have also been implicated. Whether wild deer are likely to perpetuate bTB in cat...
Farm buildings may offer foraging opportunities for wild mammals, which may result in economic losses and the potential for
disease transmission to livestock. Effective management to reduce such risks requires knowledge of the behaviour of wildlife
visiting buildings. Remote surveillance was used to monitor red fox (Vulpes vulpes) activity in build...
Efficient, practical and accurate estimates of population parameters are a necessary basis for effective conservation action to meet biodiversity targets. The brown hare is representative of many European farmland species: historically widespread and abundant but having undergone rapid declines as a result of agricultural intensification. As a prio...
In recent decades in the UK, there has been an increasing trend in numbers of the European wild rabbit, a significant agricultural
pest typically associated with grassland habitats. However, the relationship between rabbit abundance and grassland management,
in particular grazing, has not been sufficiently explained. We studied rabbit densities in...
Human–wildlife conflicts are increasing throughout the world, principally due to a combination of human population growth, increased pressure on land and natural resources and climate change. Many human–wildlife conflicts stem from differences in objectives between various stakeholder groups, especially where the wildlife in question is a resource...
Aim Using six free-living deer species in Great Britain as a case study, we studied biogeographical relationships of ecologically related species composed of both native and introduced species.
Location Great Britain.
Methods We modelled the environmental favourability for the deer species using variables related with spatial location, climate, to...
Aim Using six free-living deer species in Great Britain as a case study, we studied biogeographical relationships of ecologically related species composed of both native and introduced species.
Location Great Britain.
Methods We modelled the environmental favourability for the deer species using variables related with spatial location, climate, to...
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a serious disease of cattle in the UK in terms of the economic impact on the farming industry. The disease has proven difficult to control in the cattle population and the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is a source of infection. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the potential to employ farm husbandry an...
Wild deer populations in Great Britain are expanding in range and probably in numbers, and relatively high prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB, caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis) in deer occurs locally in parts of southwest England. To evaluate the M. bovis exposure risk posed to cattle by wild deer relative to badgers in England and...
A universal problem is whether one invests a lot in a little, or a little in a lot. The problem occurs in all systems, from animal reproduction to stock market investment. It is also a problem in scientific sampling; in this case does one look at a few farmyards for visits by badgers that may
Aim Project‐specific data for biogeographical models are often logistically impractical to collect, forcing the use of existing data from a variety of sources. Use of these data is complicated when neither absence nor an estimate of the area sampled is available, as these are requirements of most analytical techniques. We demonstrate the Mahalanobi...
In this chapter, we analyse a data set consisting of signs of badger (Meles meles; see Fig. 22.1) activity around farms. The data are longitudinal and from multiple farms; so it is likely a temporal correlation
structure is required. The response variable is binary; the presence or absence of badger activity. The dataset comes from
a survey carrie...
Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) are implicated in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) to cattle. Here we investigate potential spatio-temporal foci of opportunities for contact between badgers and cattle in farm buildings. We discuss the relative occurrence of different badger behaviours and their potential for facilitating...
Management of wildlife disease can be targeted at pathogens, hosts or vector populations, but may also focus on the environment. As constituent elements of any given environment, resident wildlife populations, and their pathogens, may be profoundly influenced by environmental change, in terms of their abundance, distribution and behavior. Hence, it...
The increasing incidence of reports of damage caused by Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) in UK urban environments requires the development of effective, humane, non-lethal solutions. Ultrasonic deterrents are widely available to the public and are sold as a humane solution to the presence of unwanted animals in urban gardens. The reported failure of...
At moderate to high densities ungulates can impact negatively on forest crops and these may be managed by lethal control. In production forestry an understanding of the relationship between ungulate density, habitat-related factors and the incidence of tree damage may promote more efficient ungulate damage management than by lethal control alone. I...
Behavioural investigations into the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) between badgers and cattle suggest that badger activity in farm buildings may incur a significant risk of cross-infection. However, measures to exclude badgers from buildings have not been systematically field-tested. In the present study, remote surveilla...
Thirty-six farms in parishes in western England that had recently experienced herd breakdowns of bovine tuberculosis were surveyed for signs of badger activity and for husbandry practices relating to the access of badgers to the farm buildings and facilities. Signs of activity were detected within the farmyards and buildings of 14 of the farms and...
Deer are recognized as hosts of Mycobacterium bovis and assessing the role of wild cervids in perpetuating tuberculosis among cattle has motivated extensive research on several continents. In this paper, the histopathology of lymph node and lung tuberculous granulomas in M. bovis positive British deer is presented. The overall aim was to seek furth...
Eurasian badgers Meles meles habitually deposit droppings and other scent marks at latrines, which may be associated with territorial defence, and communicate information related to group and individual identity and status, and food resources. Understanding patterns of latrine distribution contributes to our understanding of badger social behaviour...
Where wildlife act as a reservoir of disease for domestic mammals, measures solely based on management of either in isolation are unlikely to resolve the problem. Many such diseases can have serious economic implications for farmers and the economy and their management can present considerable challenges. Traditionally, wildlife populations have be...
Bovine tuberculosis is a serious disease of cattle in the UK where the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is implicated as a source of infection. We describe a long-term ecological and epidemiological study of a high density badger population at Woodchester Park, and review some of the principal results. Options for management of transmission to cattle...
1. It is often stated that wild deer in Great Britain are increasing in range and number. This study presents the first quantified estimate of national range expansion for all six species. From national surveys of deer presence in 10 km squares between 1972 and 2002, the red deer range is estimated to have expanded at a compound rate of 0.3% per ye...
1. Roe deer Capreolus capreolus were surveyed at night along tracks and roads in plantation forests in North Yorkshire, UK. Distance sampling was used to estimate their density. This method has been proposed for monitoring deer populations in state-owned forests throughout the UK.
2. Most deer were stationary on detection and the vast majority did...
Models concerning economic impacts of mammals in forestry have hitherto been restricted to identifying predictive variables for the intensity and distribution of damage (in Europe and North America) or maximising the financial returns from hunting (in North America). This paper aims to quantify the financial costs and benefits of roe deer browsing...
1. The need to assess population size and change is central to any population monitoring programme. A range of monitoring techniques is available for deer, but few studies have addressed the performance of these techniques in terms of their accuracy and their power to detect population changes reliably. This study compares the performance of three...
