Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌

Reliable research to help people to reduce damage from wild deer, pigs and their diseases. Always happy to update my priors 🇦🇺

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Feral animals and exotic animal disease modelling. This is a great opportunity to work closely with a leading expert on an important real-world problem.

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Ever want to know what happens when you Taser a deer?
I've got to admit that I'm struggling to get past my initial WTF, but I'll press on out of morbid curiosity.

Sounds like a study conceived shortly after 4:20

https://t.co/LQZ4ItOiBp

[Holly Kirk (@hollykirk .bluesky.social) @HollyKirk]

Just a reminder for Aussies out in nature: if you find a dead bird with no obvious sign of injury then please call the emerging animal disease hotline [phone]

Experts are right now trying to monitor for signs of avian influenza across the country.
https://t.co/cpsyR9Csl0

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Ever wonder what wild deer are eating, how they compete with sheep and cattle, and how deer population control might relieve some of that competition?
We did.
@CSIROPublishing
https://t.co/6TrjcN6wKF

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Are data availability statements meaningless? There IS a better way.

"Among 1792 manuscripts in which the DAS indicated that authors are willing to share their data, 1669 (93%) authors either did not respond or declined to share their data with us."

https://t.co/Jubpi16znO

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@PLTaggart @MTWildlifeDoc Nope, never seen anything like it. We've had a couple of fallow bucks bolt 12-14 km within a few days of heli capture, but they set up camp and lived well for > a year.

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@MTWildlifeDoc @drwebbswildlife That's a really neat visualisation! Interesting to see higher than expected mvt immediately post capture. Not what we found in a small sample of fallow deer. I'll have to look at our broader dataset
https://t.co/FGtrRPJ79N

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@comte_seb Sorry, it's a very small delivery radius from our kitchen. But next time you're up this way...

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

WFH perks: unsolicited desk delivery

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

A lot of TS recovery plans seem to be box-ticking exercises. I really hope this one brings some change:

https://t.co/rZYmD0ZcaF

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Mammals of Australia 4th edn has finally landed!
This classic text has been a part of my life for a long time, long before I was in the business. Pretty neat to have contributed to it now.

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@dr_cairns @DingoNOTWildDog Here's an easy place to start looking at drivers of population growth. Corbett is worth a look.
Shameless self-ref synthesising empirical growth rate estimates and removal rates: https://t.co/o4RHkru2XC

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@DingoNOTWildDog @dr_cairns Yes, dingoes eat pigs, but not nearly enough to counter their very high birth rate.
No amount of dingoes can keep a lid on a pig population growing anywhere near its max growth rate. 2/2

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@DingoNOTWildDog @dr_cairns The 'base line' is the fact that pig population dynamics are largely driven by food availability, which is largely driven by rain in much of Aust. We've had a run of great years for pigs. Everyone knew this was coming three years ago when we entered the wet cycle. 1/2.

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@deborah_bower Thanks.
That's a sad discovery.

[CSIRO Publishing @CSIROPublishing]

Aerial shooting of introduced sambar deer is a key activity taken to reduce this invasive species on public land in the North East and East Gippsland regions of Victoria, however little has been published on its efficacy of reducing sambar deer populations.

#WildlifeResearch 1/4

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

@CKMonty @festa_bianchet @JordanOHampton Yeah, wind farms kill birds. And death by wind turbine is more acutely lethal than lead poisoning.
I'm not 100% on this, but I suspect the high wind farm count is partly because wind farm operators have to do routine bird kill surveys, so they find a lot of birds.

[Andrew Bengsen 🐗🦌 @RowdyBengsen]

Nearly 1 in 5 #WedgeTailedEagles sampled had high lead levels in their bones.

From @JordanOHampton etal

https://t.co/Zp0UMcVfou