Domestic dogs are 100 times more vulnerable to the toxic effects of these poisons than domestic cats. For example, the effect of the anticoagulant rat poison chemicals could vary widely among different animal species that may ingest the poisons. I could see even then that biologists and conservationists alike had no grasp of just how dangerous indiscriminate use of rat poisons is for wildlife.īy the time I came on board, there were a few things we knew. investigating the effect of rat poisons on bobcats. Later that year, I was given the opportunity to earn a P.h.D. During this internship, I witnessed firsthand the ramifications poision has on wildlife. I joined this team of biologists in 2006 as a wildlife intern with the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains. The potential consequences of rat poison exposure on carnivores in the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles has been the foremost question of researchers working at the National Park Service and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) since 2002. As a result, some of the most iconic species in California – bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, owls – are the most vulnerable to this indirect poisoning. Through a process called bioaccumulation, animals at the top of the food chain absorb toxins from eating lots of different prey animals, but their organs cannot filter out the toxins, causing the poisons to accumulate in their systems. Thus, poisons enter local food webs and become especially harmful to animals at the top of the food chain. In the meantime, the poisoned animal may be vulnerable to predators, and if a predator such as a bobcat preys on the poisoned rodent, the bobcat becomes poisoned too. It can take more than a week for a poisoned rodent to die. But those who consume the poisons do not die immediately of the internal bleeding they are intended to cause. Wildlife species are exposed to anticoagulant rat poisons when the poisons are used in urban and agricultural areas to target species such as rodents. Rat poisons don’t just kill rats they kill wildlife too. Learn about how these poisons are having detrimental effects on bobcats in the Santa Monica Mountains in southern California, and what has been done to change this. In this blog, Small Cats Program Project Coordinator Laurel Serieys takes us through her research on the impact that rat poisons have on bobcats.
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