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Conservation agriculture practices have changed habitat use by rodent pests: implications for management of feral house mice

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Abstract

The advent of ‘conservation agriculture’ (CA) farming using zero- or no-tillage practices and an accompanying change in crop rotations in the last 10–15 years has potentially led to less disturbance of mouse burrows and increased cover and food supply. Given the irregular outbreaks of mice in grain cropping regions in Australia and the damage they cause, it is important to understand when and where mouse populations increase so that management strategies can be improved. We utilised a 20-year long-term mouse population data set collected prior to the introduction of CA farming practices and a more recent 8-year data set after CA to compare changes in mouse population abundance in a typical dryland grain cropping system in north-western Victoria, Australia. Mouse trapping data were used to compare abundance in crop and margin habitats during crop growth and non-crop (fallow) periods before (‘conventional’) and after introduction of CA. Mice are now resident year-round within crops and stubble and appear to only spill over into margin habitats. Previously developed recommendations for mouse management that include their control while in margin habitats may no longer be valid.

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Data availability

Data are held by the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.

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Available from author WR on request.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank various growers who have provided access to their farms to allow us to undertake this study, Stan Stone, Jim Wakefield, John Symes, and staff of the Mallee Research Station, in particular Geoffrey Stratford and Ivan Mock. We are also grateful to numerous CSIRO field staff who have assisted with this work over the 30+ years, including: Tony Arthur, Fiona Cavanaugh, Lisa Chambers, Jason Cody, Micah Davies, David Grice, Lisa Farroway, Jens Jacob, Dean Jones, Alice Kenney, Charles Krebs, Amanda Lewis, Elliott Luck, Roger Pech, Bill Price, Myfanwy Runcie, Julian Seddon, Colin Tann, Monica van Wensveen, John Winsbury, and Hannu Ylönen. This research was conducted under various animal ethics permits: CSIRO Large Animal and Wildlife AEC 12-09, AEC2015-19. AEC 2018-33. Richard Duncan, Kevin Oh, Roger Pech, Deon Roos and an anonymous reviewer provided useful advice and comments on the manuscript.

Funding

Funding for this project has come from numerous sources, including the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC: IAC00002, CSP1806-017RTX and CSP1806-015RTX) and from CSIRO Agriculture & Food, and in collaboration with the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (2.C.3a) and Landcare Research, New Zealand.

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  1. Health and Biosecurity, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Wendy A. Ruscoe, Peter R. Brown, Steve Henry, Nikki van de Weyer, Freya Robinson & Lyn A. Hinds

  2. Natural Resource Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent, UK

    Grant R. Singleton

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  1. Wendy A. Ruscoe
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  2. Peter R. Brown
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  3. Steve Henry
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  7. Grant R. Singleton
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Correspondence to Wendy A. Ruscoe.

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This work has been approved by the CSIRO Wildlife and Large Animal Ethics Committee (most recent approval: 2018–33 ‘Mouse monitoring and surveillance’) and adheres to the 8th Edition of the Australian Code and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Ruscoe, W.A., Brown, P.R., Henry, S. et al. Conservation agriculture practices have changed habitat use by rodent pests: implications for management of feral house mice. J Pest Sci 95, 493–503 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-021-01370-7

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