John Tracey

Project: Evaluating management strategies for pest birds of horticulture

Primary producers suffer considerable crop losses to birds every year. This involves a diversity of bird species each with marked ecological differences. There is also a range of factors that influence damage seasonally and at the property, regional and national scale. Land managers are faced with increasing social, environmental and legal restrictions of available techniques. Little objective advice is available and management solutions are seldom suited to all bird species, crops and situations. There is a current lack of information available on the severity and distribution of the problem and a lack of efficacy data and cost:benefit analyses for damage reduction strategies.

This project will evaluate management strategies for birds using ecological and economic frameworks. It will improve our ability to predict patterns of bird movements and damage, develop simple techniques for estimating the extent and severity of damage, and evaluate the costs and effectiveness of management strategies for birds using controlled field experiments, and population and economic modelling.