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 more slowly than some other poisons, they can build up in animal tissue for longer. This means animals are more likely to suffer sub-lethal effects from SGARs for longer, making a lethal dose more likely. Furthermore, SGARs don’t break down immediately after an animal dies, and can remain in dangerous levels days during decomposition - so even dead animals can remain poisonous for long enough to help spread poison to a scavenger or curious pet!

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.

These chemicals can serve a role in conservation projects on islands, where the need to protect native wildlife from invasive rodents has been considered by conservation professionals, and the impacts of SGARs on non-target wildlife is controlled for and observed. But in our homes, buildings, cities, and farms, the use of these chemicals results in an uncontrolled, unmeasured, and silent lethal spread.

In short, SGARs are long-lasting, lethal poisons, which can quickly spread beyond target pest rodents in when not properly controlled.

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 exposed to potential 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, rails, and gulls

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

• native mammals like possums and native rodents

• reptiles like skinks

• domestic and feral animals like dogs, cats, pigs, and deer

• invertebrates, including many common garden slugs and bugs

Non-target animals exposed to potential 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, kestrels, frogmouths, currawongs, ravens, magpies, and kookaburras

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

• carnivorous birds often scavenge dead rodents / prey, too

Other animals that we know are exposed to SGARs 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

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, ASAP. Some good indicators include bleeding gums or cuts that are taking a long time to clot. 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

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