Work carried out during the project involved field data collection on invasive rodents across five island locations that vary in their total invasive species composition. Behavioural and cognitive trials were conducted on all captured individuals, alongside the collection of associated metadata and physiological samples. Laboratory analyses on physiological samples have begun, but have not been completed as a result of the global pandemic leading to laboratory closures and subsequent backlogs. Thus a number of final conclusions remain pending within the timeframe of the grant itself, although work remains ongoing on a number of aspects. Behavioural variation was substantial both among individuals and across locations (and thus contexts), although results suggest this may contain site-specific components that are not necessarily clearly related to the complexity of the suite of invaders present on an island. Delays in laboratory-based analyses mean that multivariate statistical approaches addressing how the individual behavioural, dietary and microbiome variation present are interconnected, and whether predictions can be made across this ecological-behavioural-physiological axis, have yet to be concluded. However, all components show significant among-individual variation, and most show strong within-individual consistency. The research has led to a number of additional avenues of inquiry (connections between behaviour and the microbiome, the economic impacts of invasions, see below), and has resulted in scientific publications and broader public engagement with the early results of the research at governmental and research organisation, NGO and community group levels. Papers have been produced on the impacts and management of rodents on islands, including collaborations examining the likelihood for current management techniques to achieve eradication goals and potential obstacles to success, the impacts of invasive mice on island foodwebs and the potential to leverage individual behavioural variation to enhance management of vertebrates.
