Rodents are a key pest to agricultural and rural island communities of the South Pacific, but there is limited information of their impact on the crops and livelihoods of small-scale farmers. Case studies show that rodents are an emerging problem in PNG and remain an important pest of cocoa in Vanuatu. Improved management could be achieved through training of ecologists, and large, well-funded projects.

The bearded pig is of great ecological, social and conservation importance, yet little is known about its adaptation to the forest–oil palm mosaics that are now common across its range. We assessed several key ecological characteristics of bearded pigs in a mixed forest–oil palm landscape in Borneo, and found that the species is regularly utilising oil palm habitat and may be adapting successfully to oil palm encroachment while still relying most heavily upon forest. Thus, while oil palm plantations may provide important resources (e.g. fruit subsidies) to bearded pigs, secondary forest fragments remain fundamental and likely irreplaceable for the species’ long-term persistence in fragmented tropical landscapes.

Little is known about how much the native bell miner relies on lantana for nesting sites and if restoration through removal of lantana, resulting in an influx of native species, changes food availability and thus foraging behaviours. The objective of our study was to understand the relationship between the presence of lantana and bell miners and we found that bell miners nest successfully in a variety of plant species, and the removal of lantana as an oft-used nesting habitat is unlikely to lead to relocation by this species. Future research should focus on canopy insect assemblages in bell miner colonies, a potentially more important determinant of bell miner distribution and their relationship with dieback.

Introduced deer are commonly culled to reduce their impacts on native forests. We evaluated the effects of culling introduced red deer and sika deer on the understoreys of three New Zealand forests. Surprisingly, culling deer did not alter forest understoreys and hence managers should consider actions other than culling to alter the dynamics of New Zealand forests.

Camera traps have become a widely utilised method for surveying mammals, providing substantial benefits over conventional trapping methods. Here we evaluate the use of passive infrared cameras, relative to pitfall trapping, for surveying reptiles in a semi-arid ecosystem. We found cameras to be just as effective as pitfall traps for detecting some common diurnal species, more effective for some larger species, but significantly less effective overall. This study also highlights some of the methodological issues associated with using cameras for reptile surveys.

There is an urgent need to mitigate the impact of the amphibian fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, in the wild. This study tested if waterbodies with a salinity of S = 3, which can slow the growth of chytridiomycosis, are utilised by frogs infected with the disease. Frogs readily occupied waterbodies of S = 3 in both a controlled and field setting, suggesting potential for artificially increased salinity to become a management option.

Duikers play a vital role in maintaining forest ecosystems and are also an important source of food and income in West Africa. In the Dassioko Sud Forest Reserve (DSFR) in coastal Côte d’Ivoire, they are hunted at unsustainable levels and their population that abundance varies with habitat type is declining. Our results provide baseline data for future managing of ungulate populations in the DSFR.

Retention of some large live trees (green-tree retention) on cutover forest land may help conserve mammal diversity. Abundance of small mammals including the forest specialist, the red-backed vole, was monitored on clearcuts with dispersed and aggregated groups of retention trees. Aggregated retention of residual trees maintained populations of the red-backed vole and other small mammal species, but forest re-growth up to 20 years post-harvest may be required.