DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2ngf1vj1v
title: Woodland birds benefit from suppression of a despotic competitor following creation of an artificial ‘sink’ habitat through culling

description: While habitat fragmentation negatively impacts native biodiversity, this
 ecological process can generally be beneficial for edge-specialist species
 that preferentially occupy remnant patches. In the woodlands of eastern
 Australia, this process leads to domination of remnant patches by a
 despotic native honeyeater, the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala),
 resulting in aggressive exclusion of other avifauna. Culling has been
 trialled to alleviate the impacts of Noisy Miners, but has yielded only
 mixed success in the short term, as recolonising miners from the
 surrounding areas often occupy newly culled sites. We tested if continuous
 removal of Noisy Miners could create an artificial ‘sink’ habitat that
 would continually attract dispersing Noisy Miners to preferentially
 colonise the ‘sink’ area, reducing miner dispersal into other areas in the
 landscape and allowing recovery of native woodland birds as a
 result. Over an 18-month period, Noisy Miners were regularly
 removed from two colonies, and the resulting changes in both miner density
 and the diversity of other woodland birds were evaluated. At one
 colony, Noisy Miners routinely recolonised the area after each removal,
 creating an artificial ‘sink’ habitat as miner density rapidly recovered
 in between culling rounds. However, by attracting dispersing miners in the
 landscape to this culling site, it follows that recolonisation pressure
 elsewhere would have fallen. This was evident in this study through a
 nearby area failing to be recolonised by miners post-culling for more than
 one year, and also concurrently experiencing an improvement in avian
 diversity in the absence of miners. This shift in diversity away from the
 sink site highlights the potential of this technique to deliver
 broad-scale results with relatively quick outcomes. Further, the
 simplified protocol of repeated culls undertaken at a sink site is likely
 to be both logistically simpler and cheaper for land managers than
 attempting culling across all areas occupied by miners. Practical
 Implication: Continuous removal of Noisy Miners at designated ‘sink’ sites
 can attract dispersing individuals, reducing recolonisation elsewhere and
 promoting native woodland bird recovery. This cost-effective approach is
 simpler than widespread culling and minimises landscape disruption.
 Ongoing culling at favoured sites is likely more effective than short-term
 efforts across multiple locations, providing a practical strategy for
 managing native species exceeding ecological carrying capacity.
description: # Woodland birds benefit from suppression of a despotic competitor
 following creation of an artificial ‘sink’ habitat through culling Ahmad
 Barati1, Paul G. McDonald1 1Avian Behavioural Ecology Laboratory, Zoology,
 University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351 Australia Corresponding
 Author: Ahmad Barati1 1Avian Behavioural Ecology Laboratory, Zoology,
 University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351 Australia, Email:
 [abarati2@une.edu.au](mailto:abarati2@une.edu.au) This data
 set BaratiMcDonald_SinkCull.xlsx is the raw data collected for the above
 research, looking at the effectiveness of sink-based culling method of
 Noisy Miner. **Cull_Data sheet:** Column Name Description * Bird ID Unique
 identifier for each culled bird - Day Day of the month when the bird was
 culled * Round Culling round or session number - Date Date the bird was
 culled * Colony Name or code of the colony where the bird was located -
 NumberCulledEeat Number of birds culled at the eastern colony *
 NumberCulledMiddle Number of birds culled in the middle sections -
 NumberCulledWest Number of birds culled at the western colony *
 TotalCulledRound Total number of birds culled during that culling round -
 Pre-cull Survey Date Date of the bird survey conducted before the cull *
 Post-cull Survey Date Date of the bird survey conducted after the cull -
 BirtType Type of bird culled (e.g. species or category) * Season Season in
 which the culling occurred - Round2 Secondary round identifier * Nearest
 location Name of the nearest location to the culling site - Site Site name
 or identifier where the culling took place * Lat Latitude coordinate of
 the culling location - Long Longitude coordinate of the culling location *
 Comment Additional comments related to the culling event - Note2
 Additional notes or observations for the record **Survey_Data sheet:**
 Column Name Description * SurveyID Unique identifier for each bird survey
 event - CullRound Indicates the round or phase of Noisy Miner culling at
 the site * SurveyType Type of survey conducted (e.g. pre-cull, post-cull,
 control) - SiteID Unique identifier for each survey site * SurveyArea Name
 or code for the area where the survey was conducted - SiteType
 Classification of site (e.g. treatment, control, reference) * Date Date on
 which the survey was conducted - Start Start time of the survey * Finish
 End time of the survey - Duration Total duration of the survey in minutes
 * Flowering Indicates whether trees/shrubs were flowering at the time of
 survey - (Flowering condition was recorded on a scale from 0 to 2, where 0
 indicated no flowering, 1 indicated mild flowering, and 2 indicated heavy
 flowering) * Species Bird species observed during the survey - No_10
 Number of individuals observed within 10 m of the observer * No_20 Number
 of individuals observed within 20 m of the observer - No_30 Number of
 individuals observed within 30 m of the observer * No_40 Number of
 individuals observed within 40 m of the observer - No_42 Number of
 individuals observed within 42.5 m (standard 2 ha plot radius) * Count
 Total number of individuals of the species observed during the survey -
 SiteID2 Alternative or secondary site identifier (possibly for merged
 datasets) * TotalNSite Total number of Noisy Miner culler this round -
 BaseDiversity Baseline species richness before culling at the site *
 SurveyID2 Alternate or secondary survey identifier (used for merging
 datasets) - Richness Number of unique bird species recorded during the
 survey * Change Change in richness or abundance compared to baseline (e.g.
 post-cull − baseline)