Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research's video: Optimising control and surveillance for invasive predator management Webinar

Controlling a species at a land-scape scale requires many decisions to be made in order to best achieve the management aims of eradication or sustained control. Managers must specify a range of factors, such as spacing between control devices, capacity of devices (e.g. single capture vs multiple kill), frequency of device checking, and control duration. Furthermore, if the goal is eradication, then eventually surveillance will be required to try to prove there are no survivors – but what level of surveillance is required and for how long? Computer simulation modelling can be used to explore scenarios and compare relative effectiveness of various control and surveillance strategies. To make such models more accessible, we have developed two web-based and freely available decision support tools, TrapSim and JESS4Pests, which managers can easily use to help them make decisions and refine their plans. In this talk, Andrew describes the rationale and intended use of both tools, illustrating their utility with examples of actual applications.