Messing with their minds: using deception to improve pest management

该项目旨在通过展示欺骗和错误信息如何改变有害动物的决策，开发改善野生动物管理的新方法。以野生家鼠为模型，它将测试动物如何决定是否与野生动物控制装置（如陷阱和诱饵）相互作用的新理论，这对所有害虫控制工作都至关重要。预期的结果包括新的害虫控制工具，这些工具战略性地利用错误信息来改变决策，降低害虫破坏重要农作物（如小麦）的能力，增强诱捕器对诱饵的吸引力，并改善诱饵的吸收。这些结果应该为澳大利亚和全球脊椎动物病虫害防治提供重要的新选择。

This project aims to develop new approaches to improve wildlife management by showing how deceit and misinformation can alter decision-making in pest animals. Using wild house mice as a model, it will test new theory on how animals decide whether or not to interact with wildlife control devices, like traps and baits, which is critical to all pest control efforts. The expected outcomes include new pest control tools that make strategic use of misinformation to alter decision making, to reduce a pest's ability to damage important agricultural crops such as wheat, boost the attraction of lures to traps, and improve bait uptake. These outcomes should provide significant new options for vertebrate pest control in Australia and globally.