Credit: Saskia Keller, National Wildlife Health Center.
You think that this pathogen has density-dependent transmission, so you decide to cull snakes to reduce snake density and transmission. You doubt that you can reduce the population density below the invasion threshold (reducing R0 below 1), but you hope that some density reduction will appreciable slow disease spread, especially at the invasion front, where you focus your efforts. The humanpower required to find and catch snakes makes this an expensive and time-consuming intervention. However, it is slightly less intensive and expensive than specifically finding infected snakes, because you can deploy non-selective snake traps. After all your team's hard work, you estimate that you were able to cull 20% of all snakes in affected areas. In NetLogo, click the “cull-snakes” button a single time, which should cause many of the red dots to turn black. Now advance 4 weeks/ticks and subtract $50,000 from your budget.
Your team did not cull any endangered or threatened species and the culling methods were as humane as possible. However, the general public and conservation practitioners are upset that healthy snakes were culled in an attempt to control this outbreak. They worry that there will not be enough healthy snakes left to allow the population to recover, and that snakes that had natural resistance to the fungus may have been removed from the population. Decrease your team's charisma by 3 points. You will not be able to do another general cull of Florida snakes without your team being fired. What do you want to do next?
Option 1: Do another intervention.
Time Cost: Depends on which intervention you select
Monetary Cost: Depends on which intervention you select
Charisma Effect: Unknown
Option 2: Apply for more money for research or control efforts.
Time Cost: 4 Weeks/Ticks
Monetary Cost: $0
Charisma Effect: Unknown
Option 3: Do more research.
Time Cost: It depends on which research option you choose
Monetary Cost: It depends on which research option you choose
Charisma Effect: Unknown