Hi Jack
You could contact Mel Snape for the explanation, and to provide encouragement.
The key point is that Mel Snape of Conservation Research in ACTGOV (emails are given in David’s message below), obtained support
from ACTGOV to extend, until April just past, a project she started with Jake Gillen and Mike Lohr. Her project is seeking to measure levels of anti-coagulant pesticides in, not only diurnal raptors, but any predator that could have eaten prey poisoned by
anticoagulants. I understand there is no specific funding to continue the project in 2019/20 but actually if a very appropriate sample became available in future, I am confident that Mel or Jake would find a way to get it properly tested. Raptors that eat
rabbits, mice or rats, and other similar predators (e.g. quolls and goannas) would be high priorities.
So there is still a potential role for COG members. Members of the public could provide either the frozen carcass, or just the frozen
liver, from the kinds of predator species which eat the pests that are targeted in Australia with anticoagulant pesticides. Predator carcasses with intact livers are uncommon in any case, and to obtain ones from areas where anti-coagulants have been deployed
is even harder, so I am sure that Jake and Mel would appreciate any help that COG members are able to provide.
The explanation for the project is that ‘second generation’ anticoagulant pesticides (ones that are nationally approved and commonly
used in household and industrial rodenticides, e.g. Brodifacoum, Coumarin) have been linked, in studies both overseas and in Australia, to episodic die-offs of owls that eat rats and mice. ‘First generation’ anticoagulant pesticides break down quickly, such
as Warfarin (nationally approved for use against rats and mice) and Pindone (nationally approved for use against rabbits), but they too are suspected (e.g. in Jerry Olsen’s papers in CBN and Corella that suggest the ACT’s Little Eagle population may have been
reduced by eating rabbits affected by Pindone) but the evidence is not clear, hence the potential value of attempts to ‘drill down’ into the mechanism of the process by measuring anti-coagulant pesticide levels in wildlife.
In the current era of reduced funding nationally for biodiversity conservation, it is hard to get government funds for projects
that are only indirectly and uncertainly linked to threatened species. (And there is not much prospect of a minister making a voter-winning announcement from the results of this study!) So I would want to encourage Mel Snape, and her employer (and Jake Gillen’s),
i.e. EPSDD in ACTGOV, who contracted Mike Lohr for his lab work.
regards
Don Fletcher
0428 48 9990
From: Jack & Andrea Holland <>
Sent: Saturday, 1 June 2019 12:09 PM
To: ; Con Boekel <>
Subject: Fw: [canberrabirds] April 2019 project on Anticoagulant Rodenticides and Raptors
Hello Con, this issue came up during discussions with Jerry Olsen.
He suggested I want to share the following with chat line subscribers.
Michael Lohr, a partner in the anti-coagulant (including Pindone) assessment work at Edith Cowan University referred to below, is a Boobook biologist. And the
Birds Australia Raptor Group not only includes owls, but uses the Boobook in its logo.
BirdLife Australia Raptor Group – Promoting the study, conservation and management of Australian diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey
I’m hoping Jerry will be able to elaborate further when he next speaks to COG on a range of local raptor projects.
Jack Holland
From: Con Boekel
Sent: Tuesday, 2 April, 2019 7:20 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] April 2019 project on Anticoagulant Rodenticides and Raptors
Hi David
Normally I would assume that raptors do not include owls, however there is evidence that owls are being affected by eating rats and mice affected by baits.
Does Jake want dead owls as well as dead raptores?
regards
Con
On 4/2/2019 7:13 PM, David McDonald (personal) wrote:
Greetings. COG has been approached by Jake Gillen, ACT Government Conservation Research Ecologist. He writes:
I work with the Conservation Research Unit of the ACT Government. We are currently running a project through April 2019 which aims to collect dead or euthanized raptors. We will subsequently extract livers and send them to Edith Cowan University for anticoagulant
analysis. The aim of the project is to determine the extent of anticoagulant rodenticides within the raptor population in Canberra.
Would it be possible for you please to alert your members to be on the lookout for dead and relatively fresh specimens throughout April and to keep them frozen until we can collect them? I can be contacted via the email address
and via 6205 5290.
=================
Please contact Jake or his colleague Melissa Snape, phone 0418693723 or email to arrange for them to pick up any dead raptors that you come across this month.
Best wishes - David
--
David McDonald
Canberra Ornithologists Group email lists manager
1004 Norton Road, Wamboin, NSW 2620, Australia
Tel: (02) 6238 3706 | Mobile: 0416 231 890 | Fax: (02) 9475 4274
E-mail:
