{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T15:53:36Z","timestamp":1791474816549,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,13]],"date-time":"2024-11-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1731456000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100023669","name":"Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100023669","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Globally, species in the genus <jats:italic>Rattus<\/jats:italic> (specifically <jats:italic>Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus)<\/jats:italic>, are some of the most influential invasive taxa due to their high rates of competitive exclusion and large dietary breadth. However, the specific foraging strategies of urban-adjacent populations remain largely unknown. We examined <jats:italic>Rattus<\/jats:italic> spp. dependency on human food supplementation in a population on adjacent non-developed (or peri-urban) land. Via linear regression modeling, we measured rodent activity changes between native and invasive species before and after a decrease in human supplementation due to the COVID-19 lockdown in Santa Cruz, California, USA. We documented invasive rat activity via camera traps in normal (pre-COVID lockdown) conditions near dining halls and similar waste sources, and again under COVID lockdown conditions when sources of human supplementation were drastically decreased. After 120 trap nights we found a significant decrease (p &lt; 0.001) in <jats:italic>Rattus<\/jats:italic> activity after the removal of human refuse, while native small mammal activity remained unchanged (p = 0.1). These results have strong conservation implications, as they support the hypothesis that proper waste management is an effective, less-invasive form of population control over conventional rodenticides.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0308917","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,13]],"date-time":"2024-11-13T18:26:26Z","timestamp":1731522386000},"page":"e0308917","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Waste reduction decreases rat activity from peri-urban environment"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5193-3490","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ishana","family":"Shukla","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christopher C.","family":"Wilmers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0308917.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20170101","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2017.0101","article-title":"Assessing the direct and indirect effects of food provisioning and nutrient enrichment on wildlife infectious disease dynamics","volume":"373","author":"DJ Civitello","year":"2018","journal-title":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences"},{"key":"pone.0308917.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"186","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tree.2005.11.019","article-title":"From patterns to emerging processes in mechanistic urban ecology","volume":"21","author":"E Shochat","year":"2006","journal-title":"Trends in Ecology & Evolution"},{"key":"pone.0308917.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"439","DOI":"10.1002\/ajp.20919","article-title":"The effects of provisioning and crop-raiding on the diet and foraging activities of human-commensal white-faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus)","volume":"73","author":"T. 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