Aotearoa New Zealand's conservation management has had a strong focus on offshore islands, though this investment is at risk from human-influenced factors such as biosecurity incursions and wildfire. During the last century several wildfires have occurred on Moutohorā (Whale Island), Bay of Plenty, which is a location for six threatened plant and three threatened animal species.
Three different models of bovine tuberculosis (Tb) in brushtail possums were evaluated against their stated purpose, and testable assumptions and predictions evaluated against available data where possible. Not surprisingly, two of the models may be falsified based on currently available data with respect to either important model assumptions or predictions, and the third may suffer from being right for the wrong reason. This does not mean that these models are not useful.
In this study I assess the statistical power to detect a significantly greater increase in bird population size on treatment farms than on control farms given that there is a substantial treatment effect. Computer simulations of bird populations on New Zealand sheep/beef farms were used to generate significant changes in bird abundance from (a) controlling predation by introduced small mammals, (b) habitat structural complexity, and (c) an interaction of both.
