Domestic dogs are typically prohibited from National Parks and other wildlife reserves partly because managers fear that dog faeces will deter native small mammals from their normal behaviours. We tested this notion for two native small mammals in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, near Sydney Australia by comparing the first-night trap success of traps with experimental addition of domestic dog faeces placed near the trap entrance to control traps. Bush Rats Rattus fuscipes, the most abundant species captured, showed no aversion to dog faecal odours across 20 sampled sites and entered control and dog-scented traps equally (n=73 captures). Also, the presence of dog faeces had no association with the body size or sex of captured animals. This lack of response may be because rats do not identify dog scats as a cue to predation risk or because dog scats are an unreliable cue to predation hazards. Either way, faeces from domestic dogs dropped in native habitats appear unlikely to deter small native fauna due to predator avoidance behaviours. Further research is needed to resolve other impacts of dog scats, such as disease transfer to native mammal populations.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research-Article|
March 17 2014
Do native Australian small mammals avoid faeces of domestic dogs? Responses of Rattus fuscipes and Antechinus stuartii Open Access
Peter Banks;
Peter Banks
1
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052 Australia
Search for other works by this author on:
K. Nelika;
K. Nelika
1
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052 Australia
Search for other works by this author on:
A. Hughes;
A. Hughes
1
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052 Australia
Search for other works by this author on:
Tania Rose
Tania Rose
1
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052 Australia
Search for other works by this author on:
Australian Zoologist (2003) 32 (3): 406–409.
Citation
Peter Banks, K. Nelika, A. Hughes, Tania Rose; Do native Australian small mammals avoid faeces of domestic dogs? Responses of Rattus fuscipes and Antechinus stuartii. Australian Zoologist 1 October 2003; 32 (3): 406–409. doi: https://doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2002.018
Download citation file:

How do RZS NSW members access the full text papers?
If you are a current RZS NSW member (with publications), please access the full text of papers by visiting https://www.rzsnsw.org.au/Australian-Zoologist-access-(Members-Only) (you will be asked to log in to RZS NSW). Do not log in at the top of this current page for access.
Citing articles via
A Catalogue of the Thylacine captured on film
Stephen R. Sleightholme, Cameron R. Campbell
Parma wallabies: a history of translocations and reintroductions
Samaa Kalsia, Melanie Edwards, George Wilson
Appropriate use of acoustics for surveying koalas and interpreting habitat use: a rebuttal to Smith and Pile (2024)
Brad Law, Leroy Gonsalves, Traecey Brassil, Isobel Kerr
Principles and practices for biodiversity conservation and restoration forestry: a 30 year case study on the Victorian montane ash forests and the critically endangered Leadbeater's Possum
David Lindenmayer, David Blair, Lachlan McBurney, Sam Banks, John Stein, Richard Hobbs, Gene Likens, Jerry Franklin