- 73 -of the island. With large islands it becomes increasingly dicult to ensure that the target species is removed across the whole area. Another challenge can be the presence of a human population. For example, some methods of removing pest animals such as shooting and using poison baits for obvious reasons can’t be used in areas where there are human settlements. Also, where there are human populations there are often dierences of opinion on whether it’s appropriate to eradicate the pest animal. So it is essential that the community agrees with and is supportive of the decision to remove pest animal before any eradication attempt goes ahead.Slide14: So because of these sorts of challenges and risks it is now generally agreed that no eradication operation should be taken on without rst completing an assessment of the feasibility. And there has been quite a lot of research done over the years on how to assess the feasibility of an eradication operation. I won’t go into all the criteria in detail, because I think it will take too long, but the important point is that a lot has been learnt over the past few decades about what contributes to the success or failure of an eradication operation. By doing a thorough feasibility assessment before we start it is possible to avoid expensive failures. So the original criteria for the success of an eradication were written by Bomford and O'Brien in 1995 and these are displayed here. Since that time there have also been a number of other important contributions to the literature on assessing feasibility. Slide15: These are a couple of more recent publications which have added to that initial work by Bomford and O'Brien and these are freely available on the IUCN website. It is important that the lessons learnt and described in each of these publications are taken into account.Slide16: Looking specically at Amami O-shima now, there are a number of quite obvious challenges that will apply if feral cat eradication is to be attempted here. And the rst obviously is the size. Amami O-shima is more than twice the size of Marion Island, which is the largest island where feral cats have been eradicated so far. I should add though that there is an eradication operation currently in progress in an island in Australia which is 600 kilometers square, so that is almost as large as Amami. Another possible challenge will be the topography of Amami Island. There are some quite big mountains and valleys and this could make it dicult to ensure that cat removal gets in place across the whole island. But I think most likely the biggest challenge will be the legal and social issues involved. So as I mentioned earlier there are potential safety issues with the use of some removal techniques in areas where there’s human population and of course there is a huge issue of social acceptability. The local community must be supportive of the eradication eort for it to go ahead.Slide17: Eradication is not the only possible management option. If a feasibility study is completed and it’s found that eradication is not appropriate then there are other means that can be pursued. One
元のページ ../index.html#64