Toe trimming within the turkey industry has been used for over four decades as a method for controlling carcass scratching, and by doing so, achieving better grades and lower condemnation rates. The industry has changed greatly since the 1970’s, when the majority of the research on the procedure was completed. The technology used for toe trimming has switched from a hot-blade to the use of microwave energy, which will effect healing and toe length trimmed. The birds are larger now, which will impact mobility both before and after trimming, and in a consumer-driven trend, the industry is re-examining its codes of practice to ensure the highest level of welfare possible. As there is little pertinent research regarding these changes, the toe trimming procedure was re-examined under modern conditions and with focus on both production and welfare effects to determine if the practice can still be recommended. Hybrid Converter toms were raised to 140 d of age, with half (153) being toe trimmed at the hatchery using a Microwave Claw Processor (MCP) and the other half (153) left with their toes intact. The birds had feed consumption, body weight, mortality, toe length, stance, behaviour, and gait scores monitored throughout the trial with carcass damage assessed at processing. Means were considered significantly different when P≤0.05. Toe trimming caused a reduction in both feed consumption and body weight in the later stages of the experiment. Final weights for non-toe trimmed and toe trimmed toms were 21.70 kgs and 21.15 kgs, respectively. Feed efficiency with and without being corrected for mortality was unaffected by the procedure. Overall mortality and mortality by age group were also unaffected; however it was found that toe trimmed toms experienced higher levels of rotated tibia at 3.27% versus 0.65% for untrimmed birds. Toe length measurements found that trimmed toes were, on average, 91.9% the length of an intact toe, and that variability in length increased with trimming. The procedure was not found to impact stance or gait score, although behaviour at all ages measured demonstrated reduced mobility with trimming. In particular, reduced activity in poults for 5 d post-treatment indicates that the MCP treatment caused pain or discomfort. The percentage of carcasses which exhibited scratching was 15.6% for the non-trimmed treatment and 13.3% for the trimmed, which were not significantly different. Also, no significant effect of trimming was found for any other carcass damage category. Based on the negative impacts of toe trimming on both bird production and welfare found in this research, MCP treatment should not be recommended to turkey producers when raising heavy toms.

ABSTRACT Social relationships, habitat utilisation and life history characteristics provide a framework which enables the survival of populations in fluctuating ecological conditions. An understanding of behavioural ecology is critical to the implementation of Natural Resource Management strategies if they are to succeed in their conservation efforts during the emergence of climate change. Egernia whitii from Wedge Island in the Spencer Gulf of South Australia were used as a model system to investigate the interaction of life history traits, scat piling behaviour and chemosensory communication in social lizards. Juveniles typically took ¡Ý 3 years to reach sexual maturity and the results of skeletochronological studies suggested longevity of ¡Ý 13 years. Combined with a mean litter size of 2.2, a pregnancy rate estimated at 75% of eligible females during short-term studies, and highly stable groups, this information suggests several life history features. Prolonged juvenile development and adult longevity may be prerequisite to the development of parental care. Parental care may, in turn, be the determining factor that facilitates the formation of small family groups. In E. whitii parental care takes the form of foetal and neonatal provisioning and tolerance of juveniles by small family or social groups within established resource areas. Presumably, resident juveniles also benefit from adult territorialism. Research on birds suggests that low adult mortality predisposes cooperative breeding or social grouping in birds, and life history traits and ecological factors appear to act together to facilitate cooperative systems. E. whitii practice scat piling both individually and in small groups. Social benefits arising from signalling could confer both cooperative and competitive benefits. Permanent territorial markers have the potential to benefit conspecifics, congenerics and other species. The high incidence of a skink species (E. whitii) refuging with a gecko species (N. milii) on Wedge Island provides an example of interspecific cooperation. The diurnal refuge of the nocturnal gecko is a useful transient shelter for the diurnal skink. Scat piling may release a species ¡®signature¡¯ for each group that allows mutual recognition. Scat piling also facilitates intraspecific scent marking by individual members, which has the potential to indicate relatedness, or social or sexual status within the group. The discovery of cloacal scent marking activity is new to the Egernia genus. E. Whitii differentiate between their own scats, and conspecific and congeneric scats. They scent mark at the site of conspecific scats, and males and females differ in their response to scent cues over time. Scat piling has the potential to make information concerning the social environment available to dispersing transient and potential immigrant conspecifics, enabling settlement choices to be made. This thesis explores some of the behavioural strategies employed by E. whitii to reduce risks to individuals within groups and between groups. Scents eliciting a range of behavioural responses relevant to the formation of adaptive social groupings, reproductive activity, and juvenile protection until maturity and dispersal are likely to be present in this species. Tests confirming chemosensory cues that differentiate sex, kin and age would be an interesting addition to current knowledge. The interaction of delayed maturity, parental care, sociality, chemosensory communication and scat piling highlights the sophistication of this species¡¯ behaviour. An alternative method for permanently marking lizards was developed. Persistence, reliability and individual discrimination were demonstrated using photographic identification and the method was shown to be reliable for broad-scale application by researchers. Naturally occurring toe loss in the field provided a context against which to examine this alternative identification method and revealed the need to further investigate the consequences of routine toe clipping, as this practice appears to diminish survivorship.