Survey of damage rate of rodents and birds on walnut damage and its effective variables in Kerman province

Kerman province has the highest area under walnut cultivation in Iran. In summer 2014, 422 specimens were collected in walnut orchards of Kerman province, of which 248 specimens (58.8%) were attributed to rodents, 70 (16.6%) were attributed to birds and the remaining 104 specimens (24.6%) were attributed to both rodents and birds. In summer 2015, in those orchards that previously experienced vertebrate damage, five orchards and 27 trees were randomly selected and walnut fruit specimens with signs of rodent and bird damage were collected in four different dates. The damage rate was between 10.5% and 96.2%, giving the average damage rate 34.5%. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed a significant difference of the damage rate among the selected orchards (p0.05).