A tour de force by Hawaii’s invasive mammals: Establishment, takeover, and ecosystem restoration through eradication

Mammal Study
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Abstract

Invasive mammals have irreversibly altered ecosystems of Hawai‘i and other tropical Pacific islands in numerous cases through novel herbivory, predation, and diseases, thereby causing the disproportionate extinction of flora and fauna that occur nowhere else on Earth. The control and eradication of invasive mammals is the single most expensive management activity necessary for restoring ecological integrity to many natural areas of Hawai‘i and other Pacific Islands, and have already advanced the restoration of native biota by removing herbivorous ungulates from >750 km2. Rodenticides which have been tested and registered for hand and aerial broadcast in Hawai‘i have been used to eradicate rats from remote islands to protect nesting seabirds and are now being applied to larger islands to protect forest birds. The exclusion of other invasive mammals is now being undertaken with more sophisticated control techniques and fences. New fence designs are capable of excluding all mammals from areas to protect endangered native birds. Although the eradication of mammals from large areas has resulted in the restoration of some ecosystem processes such as natural forest regeneration, changes in other processes such as fire regimes, nutrient cycling, and invasive plant proliferation remain more difficult to reverse at larger landscape scales.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title A tour de force by Hawaii’s invasive mammals: Establishment, takeover, and ecosystem restoration through eradication
Series title Mammal Study
DOI 10.3106/041.041.0202
Volume 41
Issue 2
Year Published 2016
Language English
Publisher Mammalogical Society of Japan
Publisher location Tokyo
Contributing office(s) Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center
Description 14 p.
First page 47
Last page 60
Country United States
State Hawaii
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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