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294 12 Training Animals so They Can Return to the Wild

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Figure 12.3 Photograph of an adult female northern quoll foraging with her offspring in Kakadu National
Park. Source: Graeme Gillespie, Flora and Fauna Division, NT Department of Environment and Natural
Resources.

shelter sites (hollow logs) and create large camping sites and stealing food, and they
open expanses of bare ground between rock also raid military bases to pilfer military food
outcrops (Figure 12.4), further exacerbating rations, also known as ‘meals‐ready‐to‐eat’
predation risk for quolls. Lack of vegetation (MRE). Studies of problem bears at Camp
cover at ground level increases the risk of Ripley Military Reservation revealed that just
predation by dingoes and dogs, particularly three female bears were responsible for >80%
during the late dry season when juvenile of the nuisance activity (Ternent and
quolls begin leaving their mother’s dens in Garshelis 1999). To train the bears not to eat
search of food. Indeed, a previous study on MRE, Ternent and Garshelis (1999) laced the
quolls at Kapalga in Kakadu National Park entrée and beverage portions of the MRE
found that most predation by dingoes with thiabendazole and fed the treated MRE
occurred in burnt habitats (Oakwood 2000). to the problem bears. During subsequent
Given these problems, careful management tests, the problem bears either ignored the
of fire and predators will be necessary to MRE, or tasted and rejected the MRE as
facilitate the recovery of northern quoll food, and this aversion to MRE by the prob-
populations in Kakadu National Park. lem bears lasted a year. However, the bears
were not trained at the food depot and they
failed to develop conditioned place avoid-
12.4 Training Wild Animals ance; thus, they continued to visit the food
depot to seek alternative foods, scaring
to Avoid Eating Novel Foods numerous army personnel in the process
or Crops (Ternent and Garshelis 1999). Nonetheless,
CTA, if done in conjunction with other tech-
CTA may provide a potential non‐lethal niques (reducing access to food, education,
method for helping to solve a wide range of repellents), might help to reduce the problem
human–wildlife conflicts. In many national of nuisance carnivores where humans are
parks, large carnivores often raid campsite also present.
rubbish bins or unsecured foodstuffs, and Wild herbivores are a global problem for
these ‘nuisance’ animals can pose a substan- farmers because they cause massive damage
tial risk to human safety. Black bears (Ursus to crops. Some particularly destructive her-
americanus) are well known for entering bivores that consume crops are elephants,