| Titre : | Rapid eradication of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) from Santa Cruz Island, California |
| Auteurs : | John P. Parkes, Auteur ; David S. L. Ramsey, Auteur ; Norman Macdonald, Auteur ; Kelvin Walker, Auteur ; Sean McKnight, Auteur ; Brian S. Cohen, Auteur ; Scott A. Morrison, Auteur |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | Biological Conservation (143(3) MAR 2010) |
| Article en page(s) : | 634-641 |
| Langues: | Anglais |
| Résumé : | Eradication of invasive alien species from islands is often necessary to protect native biota. The rapidity in which eradication projects are implemented can help reduce risk they will fail. We describe the eradication of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) from Santa Cruz Island, California, highlighting those control techniques that removed the most pigs and those that removed the last pigs. In 411 days, a total of 5036 pigs were removed from the 25,000-ha island. Before the eradication began, the island was fenced into five zones. Within each zone, the same general sequence of control methods was used: trapping (16% of dispatches in 1660 trap-nights); aerial shooting from a helicopter (77% of dispatches in 13,822 km of flight path); and then ground-based hunting with trained dogs (5% of dispatches in 1111 hunter-days). Sterilized adult pigs fitted with radio collars were subsequently used to aid in the location of surviving wild pigs and to monitor the success of the project. Female telemetered pigs were more effective than males at locating remaining wild pigs. Only 10% of the last 102 pigs (the last |



