BirdLife Shoalhaven Student Grant Summary of Research
 
In 2023 BLS provided a grant to Shanaz Masani, a PhD student at the University of Sydney for her project “Understanding predator hunting to decrease nest predation of ground nesting shorebirds.” For a full overview of her project go to the BLS Autumn 2023 Magazine.
Summary of Research
"Ground-nesting shorebird populations are in decline, in Australia and globally. One of the major drivers of these declines is nest predation by mammalian predators, both native and invasive. Current lethal control measures are not as effective as they need to be to slow declines and lethal control is ethically challenging when trying to tackle native predator impacts. Research at the Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Research group at the University of Sydney, led by Prof Peter Banks and Dr Catherine Price, focuses on understanding the mechanisms behind predator behaviour to minimise their impacts on vulnerable prey, such as shorebirds.
"Mammalian predators use odour or olfactory cues to detect and locate their prey. As shorebirds have evolved to be visually cryptic, they are an easy target for these scent-driven predators. Olfactory misinformation, a technique developed by this research group, uses odour cues to decrease the conspicuousness of prey with the goal of increase nesting success despite the presence of predators. By dispersing bird odour across shorebird sites during nesting season, it should become more difficult for predators hunting by smell to pinpoint the locations of the nests.
"For this to be used as a common conservation management tool, there is still much more we need to understand about how predators respond to prey odour cues. My project focuses on understanding the behavioural responses of invasive mammalian predators, specifically black rats (Rattus rattus) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), to unrewarding and rewarding prey odour cues to guide the use of olfactory misinformation at shorebird nesting sites.
Although we still have lots of understand, our goal is for olfactory misinformation to be used to reduce predator impacts and help recover populations of declining shorebirds."
- Shani Masani
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