A triple threat: high population density, high foraging intensity and flexible habitat preferences explain high impact of feral cats on prey

Hamer, Rowena; Gardiner, Riana; Proft, Kirstin; Johnson, Christopher N.; Jones, Menna Lloyd

doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1194

Cited by 26 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Invasive aliens: ecological means to reduce the impact of feral cats Cats are likely to be a limiting factor for the colonisation and persistence of native prey species within remnant and restored habitats in the Midlands. Cats are abundant throughout the region, with estimated population densities of 0.03-0.14 cats ha À1 (Hamer et al 2021), an order of magnitude higher than the estimated average density of 0.0027 cats ha À1 across Australia (Legge et al 2017). The closest native analogue, the Spotted-tailed Quoll, occurs at densities between 0.002 and 0.007 quolls ha À1 (Hamer et al 2021).…”

Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Cats are abundant throughout the region, with estimated population densities of 0.03-0.14 cats ha À1 (Hamer et al 2021), an order of magnitude higher than the estimated average density of 0.0027 cats ha À1 across Australia (Legge et al 2017). The closest native analogue, the Spotted-tailed Quoll, occurs at densities between 0.002 and 0.007 quolls ha À1 (Hamer et al 2021). Cats (Fig.…”

Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…4b) also use habitats within their home ranges more intensively than Spotted-tailed Quoll (Fig. 4a), meaning that prey are 10-100 times more likely to encounter a cat than a Spotted-tailed Quoll in the Midlands landscape (Hamer et al 2021) and, thus, cats are likely to exert much stronger top-down control on shared prey species.…”

Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) and Eastern Quoll have progressively disappeared over the last 70 years due to high predator densities including cats, prey switching by cats when European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) (henceforth rabbits) populations plummeted following the introduction of the Myxoma virus in the 1950s (Gilfedder et al 2003) and loss of vegetation cover that provides refuge from cat predation (Mallick et al 1997). Further, cat populations have increased due to an interaction between climate change and the decline of Devil populations from facial tumour disease (Hollings et al 2014;Fancourt et al 2015a;Fancourt et al 2015b;Cunningham et al 2021;Hamer et al 2021). Invasive rodents, Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and House Mouse (Mus musculus), dominate the small mammal fauna (Gardiner 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Research supporting restoration aiming to make a fragmented landscape ‘functional’ for native wildlife

Jones¹,

Bain²,

Hamer³

et al. 2021

Eco Management Restoration

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Temperate woodlands are amongst the most threatened ecosystems in Australia because the land on which they occur is highly suited to agriculture. Two hundred years of habitat loss and fragmentation in the Midlands agricultural region in Tasmania have led to widespread declines in native vertebrates and landscapes with populations of predators including feral Cat (Felis catus) and the native-invasive Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala). Ecologists at the University of Tasmania co-designed mechanistic animal-centric research on mammals and birds in the Midlands to inform vegetation restoration carried out by Greening Australia that would support the recovery of wildlife species. We used speciesappropriate technologies to assess the decisions made by individual animals to find food and shelter and to disperse across this fragmented landscape, and linked these, together with patterns of occupancy, across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We focussed on a native (Spotted-tailed Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus) and an invasive (feral Cat, Felis catus) carnivore, a woodland-specialist herbivore (Eastern Bettong, Bettongia gaimardi) and woodland birds including the native-invasive Noisy Miner. Our results, which show intense predatory and competitive pressure of cats and populations of Noisy Miner on native fauna, highlight how grounding restoration in the context of ecological interactions is essential to success in managing the impacts of invasive species in restored landscapes. Successful restoration will require innovative approaches in plantings and field experimentation with artificial refuges, to reduce habitat suitability for the Noisy Miner and cats and provide refuges for native mammals and birds to live in the landscape where cats also occur. Our results emphasise the significance of structural complexity of restoration plantings for supporting the recolonisation and persistence of native fauna. At large landscape-scale, we demonstrate the importance of retaining small habitat elements, including ancient paddock trees, pivot irrigation corners and small, degraded remnants, in facilitating occupancy and dispersal and, therefore, persistence of wild animals across this agricultural region.

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Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Deal Ing With I Nvasives: Risk and Opportunitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Research supporting restoration aiming to make a fragmented landscape ‘functional’ for native wildlife

Jones¹,

Bain²,

Hamer³

et al. 2021

Eco Management Restoration

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If it has adverse impacts on native biodiversity, economic development or human well-being, it is termed an invasive alien species (IUCN 2021a). Examples of such impacts include declines in native vertebrate species in Australia due to predation by the feral cat (Felis catus) (Hamer et al 2021), damage to agriculture in the Philippines caused by the Golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) (Naylor 1996) and an outbreak of chikungunya fever on Reunion Island caused by the Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) (Josseran et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of alien rabbits and hares

Allmert

Jeschke

Evans

2021

Ambio

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Directly comparable data on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of alien species informs the effective prioritisation of their management. We used two frameworks, the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) and Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT), to create a unified dataset on the severity and type of impacts caused by alien leporids (rabbits and hares). Literature was reviewed to collate impact data, which was categorised following EICAT and SEICAT guidelines. We aimed to use these data to identify: (1) alien leporid species with severe impacts, (2) their impact mechanisms, (3) the native species and local communities vulnerable to impacts and (4) knowledge gaps. Native species from a range of taxonomic groups were affected by environmental impacts which tended to be more damaging than socio-economic impacts. Indirect environmental impacts were particularly damaging and underreported. No impact data were found for several alien leporid species.

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Human land‐use changes the diets of sympatric native and invasive mammal species

Chiu‐Werner,

Jones

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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The consequences of biological invasions and habitat degradation for native biodiversity depend on how species cope with the individual and synergetic challenges these processes present. To assess the impact of anthropogenic land‐use on the food web architecture of an invaded community, we examine the diets of nine native and two highly invasive mammal species at different trophic levels, inhabiting different land‐uses across six biogeographic regions in Tasmania, Australia. We use two complementary methods, environmental DNA metabarcoding analysis (eDNA) of faeces and stable isotope analysis (SIA) of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) in whole blood, to account for the high interindividual and temporal variability in the diets of multiple species simultaneously. eDNA showed regionalisation in the diet of smaller species, with land‐use further defining dietary taxa within each region. SIA revealed that bioregion and land‐use influence the δ13C values of all carnivore species and omnivores, whereas the δ15N values of these species are influenced only by land‐use and not bioregion. Including multiple species showed that native rats are changing their diet in response to the presence of invasive rats, an impact that would have otherwise been attributed to land‐use. Our findings demonstrate that human activities and invasive species are moulding the diets of invaded communities, raising questions about the potential impacts that dietary modifications will have on the life‐history traits and the evolutionary consequences these modifications might have on the survival of native species. This highlights the urgency of including human activities in ecological studies and the importance of targeting multispecies assemblages to gain a better understanding of synergetic impacts on native biodiversity.

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A triple threat: high population density, high foraging intensity and flexible habitat preferences explain high impact of feral cats on prey

Cited by 26 publications

References 32 publications

Research supporting restoration aiming to make a fragmented landscape ‘functional’ for native wildlife

Research supporting restoration aiming to make a fragmented landscape ‘functional’ for native wildlife

An assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of alien rabbits and hares

Human land‐use changes the diets of sympatric native and invasive mammal species

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