Some small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimizeadverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in the...Some small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimizeadverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in theirenvironment and consideration of how they react to management efforts, management will not be optimal. Socialbehavior, spatial and temporal activity patterns, predator avoidance and other behavioral responses can affect pestrodent management. Some of these behavioral patterns and their causes have been well studied. However, theirimpact on pest rodent management, especially for novel management approaches, is not always clear. Habitatmanipulation occurs necessarily through land use and intentionally to reduce shelter and food availability and toincrease predation pressure on rodents. Rodents often respond to decreased vegetation height with reducedmovements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior. This seems to result mainly from an elevatedperceived predation risk. Behavioral responses may lessen the efficacy of the management because the desiredeffects of predators might be mediated. It remains largely unknown to what extent such responses can compensateat the population level for the expected consequences of habitat manipulation and how population size and cropdamage are affected. It is advantageous to understand how target and non-target species react to habitatmanipulation to maximize the management effects by appropriate techniques, timing and spatial scale withoutcausing unwanted effects at the system level.展开更多
文摘Some small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimizeadverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in theirenvironment and consideration of how they react to management efforts, management will not be optimal. Socialbehavior, spatial and temporal activity patterns, predator avoidance and other behavioral responses can affect pestrodent management. Some of these behavioral patterns and their causes have been well studied. However, theirimpact on pest rodent management, especially for novel management approaches, is not always clear. Habitatmanipulation occurs necessarily through land use and intentionally to reduce shelter and food availability and toincrease predation pressure on rodents. Rodents often respond to decreased vegetation height with reducedmovements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior. This seems to result mainly from an elevatedperceived predation risk. Behavioral responses may lessen the efficacy of the management because the desiredeffects of predators might be mediated. It remains largely unknown to what extent such responses can compensateat the population level for the expected consequences of habitat manipulation and how population size and cropdamage are affected. It is advantageous to understand how target and non-target species react to habitatmanipulation to maximize the management effects by appropriate techniques, timing and spatial scale withoutcausing unwanted effects at the system level.
