Epidemiological models to control the spread of information in marine mammals

Socially transmitted wildlife behaviours that create human–wildlife conflict are an emerging problem for conservation efforts, but also provide a unique opportunity to apply principles of infectious disease control to wildlife management. As an example, California sea lions (Zalophus californianus)...

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Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2016-12, Vol.283 (1844), p.20162037-20162037
Main Authors: Schakner, Zachary A., Buhnerkempe, Michael G., Tennis, Mathew J., Stansell, Robert J., van der Leeuw, Bjorn K., Lloyd-Smith, James O., Blumstein, Daniel T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Communication
Animals
Animals, Wild
Conservation of Natural Resources
Culling
Feeding Behavior
Human–wildlife Conflict
Learning
Marine
Network-Based Diffusion
Salmon Conservation
Salmonidae
Sea Lions - physiology
Social Learning
Social Transmission
Zalophus californianus
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Summary:Socially transmitted wildlife behaviours that create human–wildlife conflict are an emerging problem for conservation efforts, but also provide a unique opportunity to apply principles of infectious disease control to wildlife management. As an example, California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) have learned to exploit concentrations of migratory adult salmonids below the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam, impeding endangered salmonid recovery. Proliferation of this foraging behaviour in the sea lion population has resulted in a controversial culling programme of individual sea lions at the dam, but the impact of such culling remains unclear. To evaluate the effectiveness of current and alternative culling strategies, we used network-based diffusion analysis on a long-term dataset to demonstrate that social transmission is implicated in the increase in dam-foraging behaviour and then studied different culling strategies within an epidemiological model of the behavioural transmission data. We show that current levels of lethal control have substantially reduced the rate of social transmission, but failed to effectively reduce overall sea lion recruitment. Earlier implementation of culling could have substantially reduced the extent of behavioural transmission and, ultimately, resulted in fewer animals being culled. Epidemiological analyses offer a promising tool to understand and control socially transmissible behaviours.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2016.2037