'Judas' animals - Traitors to their own kind: Radio tracking Judas pigs and pythons to help control invasive species

A Tale of Two Traitors
April 2013. A radio-tagged female Burmese python in the Everglades leads USGS researchers to male pythons, and a radio-tagged feral pig lets USGS scientists know just how destructive to native wildlife and vegetation her kind is. These and other so-called "Judas" animals are unknowingly traitors to their own kind in USGS research that sheds light on the movement and habits of important non-native species.
Dinner on the hoof
Feral pigs, first introduced to the continental United States in the 1500s by Spanish conquistadors who brought the animals over as food, typically weigh in at a hefty 200 pounds but can reach as much as 400 pounds. These feral pigs have tusks up to three inches long - which they aren't afraid to use. They are territorial and live in groups called sounders of as many as 20 individuals, mostly females and young pigs of both sexes.

Have you seen the not-so little piggies?
Males are solitary and only interact with sows to breed. Even though these animals have been in the United States for centuries, little is known about their populations, habitat use and movement patterns, or the habitat destruction their burgeoning numbers are causing in Louisiana and Mississippi. Consequently, USGS researchers have captured, collared and then released large boars and sows to return to their sounder or to their solitary ways if a male.

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/judas-species.html

Research shows that the fringes of fields are vital for the survival of hares

Hares Live Life on the Edge

November 2012. Brown hares have declined in Britain by as much as 80 per cent since the 19th century due to the intensification of farming methods, and now ecologists are working on ways of conserving their numbers.

A team from the Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences (CEMS) on the University of Hull's Scarborough campus and the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) have looked at how hares use fields, field margins and small blocks of woodland in farmland in North Yorkshire.

Radio tracking hares
By tracking hares fitted with small radio transmitters they found that, especially in large, uniform fields, hares spent most of their time foraging and resting in or near the margins. Where farmers had left broad margins, sown with grasses and wildflowers, hares used these in preference to other habitats, even if they only represented a very small proportion of the entire area. The team's research shows that managing small areas for wildlife in farmland might make a very big contribution to the survival of the brown hare population.

Dr Phil Wheeler, who carried out the study with Dr Silviu Petrovan of CEMS and Dr Alastair Ward of FERA, said: "We know a lot about how changes in farming have affected some of our wildlife, but relatively little about our mammals. This work shows that the loss of field margins may have contributed to the decline in brown hares.

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/field-hares.html