Leaving egg-eating top predators alone is good for turtle conservation

Raccoons Procyon lotor love loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta eggs, as do ghost crabs Ocypode quadrata. The trouble with the often-used conservation measure of controlling raccoons at turtle nesting beaches is it lets the ghost crabs off the hook: raccoons are also partial to the odd crustacean for dinner. A study published recently in Biological Conservation suggests that leaving at least some raccoons might actually benefit the beleaguered turtles, because they suppress predation levels by crabs. Yale researcher Brandon Barton’s field study found the highest ghost crab numbers – and highest overall turtle nest predation – occurred where there were the fewest raccoons. Go on, go cuddle a raccoon today. Source: Barton BT & Roth JD (2008) Implications of intraguild predation for sea turtle nest protection. Biol. Cons. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.013

Image: © Hans-Walter Untch (photo is of a mainland raccoon, not a Caribbean Raccoon)

Article taken from Journal Watch Online - http://journalwatch.conservationmagazine.org
URL to article: http://journalwatch.conservationmagazine.org/2008/07/29/yay-for-raccoons/

To prevent BIRDS from flying into windows, simply draw a grid with a yellow highlighter marker on your window.  It is mostly invisible to us, but very visible to the birds.  LINK here

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