Land Use as a Driver of Patterns of Rodenticide Exposure in Modeled Kit Fox Populations

Although rodenticides are increasingly regulated, they nonetheless cause poisonings in many non-target wildlife species. Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide use is common in agricultural and residential landscapes. Here, we use an individual-based population model to assess potential populat...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 10; no. 8; p. e0133351
Main Authors Nogeire, Theresa M, Lawler, Joshua J, Schumaker, Nathan H, Cypher, Brian L, Phillips, Scott E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 05.08.2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Agricultural land
Agriculture
Agrochemicals
Animal behavior
Animals
Anticoagulants - poisoning
Birds
Endangered species
Environmental Exposure
Environmental protection
Exposure
Foxes
Habitats
Land cover
Land use
Landscape
Models, Theoretical
Pesticides
Populations
Residential density
Rodenticides
Rodenticides - poisoning
Rodents
United States
Vulpes macrotis
Vulpes macrotis mutica
Wildlife
Wildlife conservation
United States
New Zealand
Sacramento California
Washington DC
California
France
United States > US
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Summary:Although rodenticides are increasingly regulated, they nonetheless cause poisonings in many non-target wildlife species. Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide use is common in agricultural and residential landscapes. Here, we use an individual-based population model to assess potential population-wide effects of rodenticide exposures on the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica). We estimate likelihood of rodenticide exposure across the species range for each land cover type based on a database of reported pesticide use and literature. Using a spatially-explicit population model, we find that 36% of modeled kit foxes are likely exposed, resulting in a 7-18% decline in the range-wide modeled kit fox population that can be linked to rodenticide use. Exposures of kit foxes in low-density developed areas accounted for 70% of the population-wide exposures to rodenticides. We conclude that exposures of non-target kit foxes could be greatly mitigated by reducing the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides in low-density developed areas near vulnerable populations.
Bibliography:Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: TN JL NS. Performed the experiments: TN. Analyzed the data: TN JL NS BC SP. Wrote the paper: TN JL NS BC SP.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133351