Population dynamics of foxes during restricted-area culling in Britain: Advancing understanding through state-space modelling of culling records.

ABSTRACT: Lethal control is widely employed to suppress the numbers of target wildlife species within restricted management areas. The success of such measures is expected to vary with local circumstances affecting rates of removal and replacement. There is a need both to evaluate success in individual cases and to understand variability and its causes. In Britain, red fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations are culled within the confines of shooting estates to benefit game and wildlife prey species. We developed a Bayesian state-space model for within-year fox population dynamics within such restricted areas and fitted it to data on culling effort and success obtained from gamekeepers on 22 shooting estates of 2 to 36 km2. We used informative priors for key population processes-immigration, cub recruitment

SUBMITTER: Porteus TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6863561 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature