EFFECTS OF PREVIOUS AND ALTERNATIVE FEEDING ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF FLOCOUMAFEN BAITS BY THE LESSER BANDICOOT RAT, BANDICOTA-BENGALENSIS, AND THE INDIAN GERBIL, TATERA-INDICA

In multi-choice feeding experiments in which freshly prepared loose gr ain bait (FB) in a mixture of wheat, sugar and peanut oil (WSP, 96:2:2 ) containing 0.005% of an anticoagulant rodenticide Flocoumafen and it s ready-to-use wax cake formulation (RUC) were offered in choice with plain bait in an experimental pen, the lesser bandicoot rat, Bandicota bengalensis, after initial sampling, rejected and displaced the RUC, whereas the Indian gerbil, Tatera indica, nibbled it into small pieces at its original location. Previous feeding experience of rats on WSP or plain millet and the availability of these foods as alternatives to toxic baits during their treatment had no effect on the preference of B. bengalensis for FB over RUC, which happened in the case of T. indi ca. Mean daily consumption (g/100 g body weight) of FB by B. bengalens is and T. indica was 2.31 +/- 0.33 and 1.75 +/- 0.29 respectively and the corresponding values for RUC were 0.23 +/- 0.08 and 1.12 +/- 0.13 in the experiment in which the previous and alternative food (WSP) was the same as the base material for FB. When plain WSP was changed to m illet, the mean daily consumption of FB by B. bengalensis and T. indic a was 1.65 +/- 0.35 and 1.83 +/- 0.24 g/100 g body weight respectively and the corresponding values of RUC were 0.10 +/- 0.07 and 1.86 +/- 0 .62 g/100 g body weight. Species-specific differences in the behaviour al responses toward Flocoumafen baits suggested that RUC is unsuitable for the control of B. bengalensis and has limited potential against T . indica, whereas FB is more effective against both species.