How SGARs affect other animals

Second-generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides aren’t just a threat to target pest species like feral mice and rats, and can affect a wide range of non-target native wildlife or domestic pets.

Ingestion is the main way animals get poisoned by SGARs. There are two ways animals can ingest poisons:

  • Primary poisoning occurs where an animal consumes poison directly, such as a mouse eating poisoned bait.

  • Secondary poisoning occurs where an animal consumes another organism that has been poisoned, such as owls eating mice that have eaten poisoned bait.

Click here to learn how to help a suspected poisoned animal


Why SGARs are particularly dangerous for animals and the environment

Rodenticides don’t just affect mice and rats. Even sub-lethal doses of SGARs can result in slower reaction times and worse reflexes for a wide range of animals, meaning they are more likely to be preyed upon or to be hit by cars.

But, the most insidious problem with SGARs is that they don’t break down easily.

Because SGARs break down slowly, poison builds up in animal tissue more easily, making sub-lethal effects worse or ultimately killing animals outright. SGARs also don’t break down quickly through an animal’s decomposition, so animals can remain poisonous for months or even years after they die!

Finally, even though SGARs say they’re fast, they don’t kill immediately. This means that animals poisoned at unsecured baits have time to run around and spread the poisons around, greatly increasing the risk of secondary poisoning events.

In short, SGARs are long-lasting, lethal poisons, which quickly spread uncontrolled

Click here to read more about how SGARs work

Or click here to learn which products to buy and avoid, to better keep wildlife and pets safe

Animals at risk

Non-target animals are affected by primary poisoning:

When someone is focused on a pest rodent they are trying to bait, it can be easy to ignore the non-target animals that may also eat poisoned baits - note that this problem is true of all poisons, not just SGARs.

Besides feral rodents, poisoned baits can be eaten by a wide range of often common backyard animals, including:

  • native birds like native pigeons, parrots, ducks, ravens, and gulls

  • introduced birds like sparrows, pigeons, and free-range chickens and ducks

  • native mammals like possums and native rodents

  • reptiles like skinks

  • domestic animals like dogs, cats, and even horses

  • invertebrates, including many common garden slugs and bugs

Non-target animals are affected by secondary poisoning:

While animals that eat mice and rodents are the ones most obviously at risk of secondary poisoning, many insectivores, scavengers, and predators of larger prey are at risk too.

Of rodenticides, SGARs pose the biggest threat of secondary poisoning.

Non-target birds at include:

  • predators of rats and mice, like owls, falcons, frogmouths, currawongs, ravens, magpies, and kookaburras

  • larger predators like Powerful Owls and Wedge-tailed Eagles also eat possums and other birds that have been exposed to SGARs

  • birds that eat poisoned invertebrates, like ibis, robins, thrushes, rails, ducks, magpies, and shorebirds like plovers

  • carnivorous birds often scavenge dead rodents / prey, too

Other animals include:

  • carnivorous pets like cats and dogs

  • native mammal carnivores like quolls and Tasmanian Devils

  • native reptiles like snakes and some lizards

  • native frogs

  • scavenging invertebrates like carrion beetles

What to do if you find a sick or injured bird

For your own safety, don’t just grab wild animals! Birds of prey like owls, have sharp beaks and talons, and wild mammals or reptiles can have dangerous teeth and claws.

If you come across a sick or injured wildlife, the most important thing to do is to call your State or Territory’s wildlife rescue hotline and follow their advice.

If you suspect your family pet has been poisoned, take them to a vet. Make sure to tell the vet if you had rat bait out (even inside your house, away from pets), or if you caught your pet with a dead rat or mouse, before they got sick.


Learn how to keep rodents away from your home, without poison, to keep birds and pets safer

Return to Rat Poisons Homepage

 

Resource: Food Web Poster

Our new poster illustrates how SGARs can spread to a range of animals across the food chain, even if they don’t take the bait directly. Download your copy, here