Abstract
In 2014, the South Korean government initiated the “Nutria Eradication Project” to actively manage and control populations of nutria, an invasive alien species that threatens national biodiversity. In the present study, we examined domestic nutria habitats in 2014 to 2018 and analyzed spatial shifts in habitat distribution to develop management policies and eradication strategies for the South Korean Ministry of Environment. A total of 27,487 nutria individuals were captured over five years upon the initiation of the eradication project. We found that the number of habitat tracks decreased from 1510 in 19 administrative districts in 2014 to 176 in 14 districts in 2018. We examined the distribution of nutria habitat tracks and found a northwestward shift at an average angle of 313.9° and 46,656.9 m. This distribution shift prompted improvements in control policies focused on nutria capture to suppress rodent movement and shifting distributions. We redefined the spatial scope of our control regions accordingly and established isolated environments in each region to prevent further spread. Additionally, resource management was focused in areas showing habitat expansion. Overall, we observed an estimated 54% decrease in nutria habitat tracks from 2016 to 2017. Our results have since been enacted in government policies and provide a basis for establishing flexible strategies for effectively controlling nutria habitats and populations. In 2017, the South Korean government allocated additional funds for research and for the development of further control strategies working toward the project’s goals.
Highlights
International trade is frequently accompanied by the migration of associated species
Nutria populations were locally managed after the species was designated as invasive by the national government in 2009
Since the South Korean Ministry of Environment initiated the Nutria Eradication Project in 2014, nutria populations have been controlled at the national level
Summary
International trade is frequently accompanied by the migration of associated species. Combined with major factors affecting the global environment, such as climate change [5,6] or the destruction of wild habitats by human disturbance [7,8], invasive alien species further aggravate biodiversity loss. This negatively affects our ability to preserve both the global ecosystem and human society in terms of economic as well as environmental damage [9]. As well as agricultural damage, their foraging and burrowing behaviors result in biodiversity loss by competing with indigenous species [15,16,17,18,19]
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