Download or read book Public Perceptions of Mammalian Pests, Pest Management and Monitoring of Ground-dwelling Animals on Kawau Island, New Zealand written by James Kim and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mammalian pest species pose a significant global threat to native fauna and flora, particularly to island ecosystems. The eradication of pest animals on offshore islands has been critical in protecting threatened species. Increasingly, pest eradication efforts have been steadily directed towards permanently inhabited islands. This situation presents added challenges of social complexity and divided land ownership to an inherently difficult management task. In 2019, the residential island of Kawau was selected by the regional government as a key candidate for multi-species pest eradication of rats, brushtail possums, stoats, and wallabies. This thesis investigated social and ecological aspects regarding pest management on inhabited islands. A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess residents' (n = 43) and visitors' (n = 84) perceptions of pests and pest management on Kawau Island. Nearly all pest animals were perceived to be highly damaging to native wildlife or native bush. However, wallabies were perceived to be the least favourable animal for control or eradication (Tukey HSD test; p