Not taking the bait: Remote camera monitoring of species uptake of 1080 baits in southwest WA forests

Under ‘Western Shield’, the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation have aerially deployed 1080 meat baits seasonally over the last 15 years, covering almost 3.5 million hectares. Supplementary hand baiting is also carried out at high conservation significance sites (e.g. swamps harbouring threatened quokka populations). Previous bait uptake studies have predominantly focussed on unbaited areas, with foxes taking large percentages of baits. Few studies have investigated bait uptake under established baiting programs. We monitored 1080 bait uptake at 7 monthly hand-baited sites (baited over 14 years to protect known quokka populations). Our study shows that very few baits are taken by target pest species (i.e.