Biases in the Detection of Intentionally Poisoned Animals: Public Health and Conservation Implications from a Field Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Intentional poisoning is a global wildlife problem and an overlooked risk factor for public health. Managing poisoning requires unbiased and high-quality data through wildlife monitoring protocols, which are largely lacking. We herein evaluated the biases associated with current monitoring programmes of wildlife poisoning in Spain. We compared the national poisoning database for the 1990-2015 period with information obtained from a field experiment during which we used camera-traps to detect the species that consumed non-poisoned baits. Our findings suggest that the detection rate of poisoned animals is species-dependent: Several animal groups (e.g., domestic mammalian carnivores and vultures) tended to be over-represented in the poisoning national database, while others (e.g., corvids and

SUBMITTER: Gil-Sanchez JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7908198 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature