Alien Vertebrates and Insect Conservation

Abstract

The roles of alien vertebrates in insect conservation are cited most commonly as the direct impacts of predation – notorious examples include impacts of rats, mice and mustelids on remote islands or other isolated environments such as New Zealand, and impacts of introduced fish, notably trout, on aquatic fauna in Australia. Both have numerous parallels elsewhere. Attempts to locally eradicate such taxa for conservation of notable threatened insects recur, but some lead to conflict. Trout for example, are distributed widely from commercial or government hatcheries for recreational angling, and licence fees may be a significant revenue source, together with supplies of gear and bait. However, some New Zealand weta now survive largely or only after translocations to small offshore islands from which rodents have been eliminated, and some aquatic arthropods persist only in the upper reaches of streams inaccessible to alien predatory fish.