Control of Rat Damage in Oil Palm Plantation Using Local Hunting Dogs-IOI Kahang Estate’s Experience

Abstract

Kahang Estate, situated in the south eastern part of Johor state is known for severe rat damage on oil palm fruits for more than two-and-a-half decades. The main species is Rattus tiomanicus and the current practice of poison baiting with high number of rounds per campaign was found to be short lived in controlling the rat damage on fresh fruit bunches. A coincidental observation on one of the harvester’s hungry mongrel dog hunting a running rat in the field gave the idea and prompted the estate management to train and establish a rat hunting dog team since 2017. The current paper shares this first of its kind experience of Kahang Estate management in controlling the rat population by dogs in a consolidated area of 364 hectares of 2009 replants. Keywords: Rattus tiomanicus, bait shyness rats, mongrel dogs.