History of rodent pest control studies in the Zoological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University

Abstract

In the commemoration of Emeritus Professor Teru Aki Uchida, who was a professor at the Zoological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, I have described the history of the laboratory, which was established 100 years ago, and a rodent study that was started in the laboratory 73 years ago, focusing on efforts to control rodent pests. In addition, I have described the relationship between these efforts and the history of damage by rodents and countermeasures against them in Japan. After the Second World War, there was a lot of rodent damage from the 1950s to the 1980s. The laboratory has conducted applied and basic research on rodent pest control in Shikoku, Kyushu, Amami Islands, Okinawa Islands, and overseas South Sea Islands. It has evaluated the effects of rodenticides and natural enemies and issued warnings about the impacts on native species and ecosystems of introduced natural enemies, such as Mustela itatsi, which have been widely used traditionally including in that period in Japan. These were pioneering research efforts in Japan. As a future task, in order to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems, it is necessary to comprehensively implement measures against invasive species such as rodents and introduced natural enemies that have established their populations on islands, especially on those that had no predatory mammals originally.