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Rodent pests, primarily cotton rats and marsh rabbits, can cause up to $30 million in damage annually to the area’s 750,000 acres of sugarcane, rice and vegetable crops. In sugarcane fields, rodents cause a direct loss by devouring the millable portion of the plant, the stalk containing the desired sucrose. But indirect losses due to stand reductions and harvesting losses may be even more substantial, said Richard Raid, an associate professor of plant pathology at the UF/IFAS Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade.

“In the past, growers relied principally on chemicals to control excessive rodent populations, but rodenticides are short-lived and have to be reapplied,” Raid said. “Rodents can become bait shy, rendering chemicals less effective.”

With the current emphasis on “sustainable agriculture,” Raid has joined with Greg Hendricks, a wildlife biologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, to look for a more environmentally sound method of rodent control. Their cooperative efforts have focused on one of nature’s most efficient rodent predators – the barn owl.

“The indigenous barn owl is very effective in preying on such agricultural pests,” Hendricks said, “with a single nesting pair capable of eliminating more than 1,000 rodents per year. But barn owl populations in the EAA remain far below optimum because of a shortage of suitable nesting sites.”

Hendricks said that while barn owls readily accept man-made structures, such as barns, silos, pole sheds and church steeples, as nesting sites, urbanization, farm consolidation and building modernization have all taken a toll on historical barn owl nesting sites and natural habitat.

With the help of Florida’s sugarcane industry, Raid and Hendricks are looking at the use of man-made nesting boxes as a way of enhancing barn owl populations. In a cooperative effort by UF/IFAS, the USDA/NRCS and Wellington Community High School, studies have shown that barn owls will readily colonize one of several nesting box models selected by Raid and constructed by environmentally minded high school students.

Titles:   Harry Kelton - Pelican Rehabilitator
Linda Kubitz - Reporting
Harrison Bresee - Florida Sea Grant

Total Running Time:  1:30

TAG:   FISHERMEN CAN ALSO HELP WITH ANOTHER THREAT TO PELICANS… IMPROPERLY DISCARDED FISHING LINE.  PELICANS CAN BECOME
ENTANGLED IN A FISHING LINE AND EVENTUALLY STARVE TO DEATH.
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TOSSING A BROWN PELICAN FISH SCRAPS MAY SEEM LIKE AN ACT OF KINDNESS, BUT THIS GOOD DEED COULD END UP IN DEATH IF FISHERMEN AREN’T CAREFUL. PELICANS CAN BE INJURED OR EVEN KILLED IF THEY CONSUME FISH TOO LARGE TO BE SWALLOWED AND DIGESTED.

Harry Kelton - “These are bones that we took out of a pelican that was starving to death.  They were stuck right about here in the pelican.  Right where the neck joins the body and these points were sticking through the esophagus.  They had already made little punctures.” (:19)

THE BONES IN A FISH THE SIZE OF A DOLPHIN OR COD ARE TOO BIG FOR THE
PELICAN’S STOMACH TO DIGEST.  SO THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND FLORIDA SEA GRANT ARE WARNING PEOPLE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM BEFORE ANY MORE SEA BIRDS ARE HURT.

Harrison Bresee - Florida Sea Grant “Part of the solution is when you clean your fish at a fish cleaning station is to take the carcass  and dispose of it in a trash can or trash receptacle or do something else with the carcass so that you do not let the pelicans eat the carcass. It’s very simple.  The carcass can be ground.  It can be thrown away or it can be disposed of properly.”  (:17)

THESE SIGNS ARE GOING UP AT AROUND A THOUSAND MARINAS IN FLORIDA ASKING PEOPLE TO BE CAREFUL WHAT THEY FEED PELICANS.  ANYTHING LARGER THAN A PIN FISH OR A MULLET COULD BE A DEATH SENTENCE.  IN MIAMI, I’M LINDA KUBITZ REPORTING.