Noisy silence
New Zealand’s use of toxic aerial baits to rid the islands of invasive mammal predators has attracted anecdotal claims that forests “fall silent”, with birdsong declines after each operation.
Listening to the forests, scientists have found little evidence for the claim, according to a study published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. At a species level, however, chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) and tomtits (Petroica macrocephala) did make less noise following single bait applications, suggesting they may have been exposed to the poison.
Published by Cosmos.
