Scientists may have found a smart new way to prevent kea from eating 1080 poison pellets meant for their predators. How to stop some of the famously curious alpine parrots eating 1080 cereal baits deployed to kill their predators has been a headache facing conservationists. Working with a team of researchers at Christchurch's Willowbank Wildlife reserve, Nichols pushed the idea further by trying to train captive kea to avoid non-toxic cereal baits that perfectly mimicked the look, feel, and taste of 1080 baits. "This study opens up the possibility of training at-risk individual kea to avoid toxic cereal bait after multiple feeding events." "Furthermore, anthraquinone can make mammals averse too, so providing aversion baits to kea, while restricting access by possums and rats, could present challenges for some operations."

Source: Otago Daily Times July 22, 2020 03:00 UTC