Target specificity of the felixer grooming “trap”

Read, John; Bowden, Tayla; Hodgens, Pat; Hess, Marco; McGregor, Hugh; Moseby, Katherine E.

doi:10.1002/wsb.942

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…These include both baiting and trapping strategies, as well as the development of efficient baits (e.g. Eradicat and Curiosity baits) and of automated traps that specifically recognise and poison feral cats (Algar et al 2011;Johnston et al 2011;Fisher et al 2015;Fancourt et al 2019;Read et al 2019;Moseby et al 2020). Other highly innovative genetic, cellular or behavioural methods are also being developed and offer promise for controlling feral cats in the future (Kinnear 2018;Moro et al 2018).…”

Section: Local and General Implications For Feral Cat Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid recolonisation of feral cats following intensive culling in a semi-isolated context

Palmas¹,

Gouyet²,

Oedin³

et al. 2020

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Invasive feral cats threaten biodiversity at a global scale. Mitigating feral cat impacts and reducing their populations has therefore become a global conservation priority, especially on islands housing high endemic biodiversity. The New Caledonian archipelago is a biodiversity hotspot showing outstanding terrestrial species richness and endemism. Feral cats prey upon at least 44 of its native vertebrate species, 20 of which are IUCN Red-listed threatened species. To test the feasibility and efficiency of culling, intensive culling was conducted in a peninsula of New Caledonia (25.6 km²) identified as a priority site for feral cat management. Live-trapping over 38 days on a 10.6 km² area extirpated 36 adult cats, an estimated 44% of the population. However, three months after culling, all indicators derived from camera-trapping (e.g., abundance, minimum number of individuals and densities) suggest a return to pre-culling levels. Compensatory immigration appears to explain this unexpectedly rapid population recovery in a semi-isolated context. Since culling success does not guarantee a long-term effect, complementary methods like fencing and innovative automated traps need to be used, in accordance with predation thresholds identified through modelling, to preserve island biodiversity. Testing general assumptions on cat management, this article contributes important insights into a challenging conservation issue for islands and biodiversity hotspots worldwide.

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Section: Local and General Implications For Feral Cat Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid recolonisation of feral cats following intensive culling in a semi-isolated context

Palmas¹,

Gouyet²,

Oedin³

et al. 2020

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“…Further, the Felixer ™ is still in the initial phases of production and is not yet produced on a large commercial scale. The Felixer ™ has many merits in regards to feral cat control because of its hazard reduction for baiting non‐target species (Read et al, 2019); thus, it is likely to be increasingly applied in future management projects, especially as costs per unit decline.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting targets and costs for feral‐cat reduction on large islands using stochastic population models

Venning

Saltré

Bradshaw

2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Feral cats are some of the most destructive invasive predators worldwide, particularly in insular environments; hence, density-reduction campaigns are often applied to alleviate the predation mortality they add to native fauna.Density-reduction and eradication efforts are costly procedures with important outcomes for native fauna recovery, so they require adequate planning to be successful. These plans should include empirical density-reduction models that can guide yearly culling quotas, and resource roll-out for the duration of the culling period. This ensures densities are reduced over the long term and that resources are not wasted. We constructed a stochastic population model with cost estimates to test the relative effectiveness and cost-efficiency of two main culling scenarios for a 10-year eradication campaign of cats on Kangaroo Island, Australia: (a) constant proportional annual cull (one-phase), and (b) high initial culling followed by a constant proportional maintenance cull (two-phase). A one-phase cull of at least 0.35 of the annual population size would reduce the final population to 0.1 of its original size, while a two-phase cull with an initial cull of minimum 0.6 and minimum 0.5 maintenance cull would reduce the final population to 0.01 of its initial size within the 10-year time frame. Cost estimates varied widely depending on the methods applied (shooting, trapping, aerial poison baits, Felixer™ poison-delivery system), but using baiting, trapping and Felixers with additional shooting to meet culling quotas was the most cost-effective combination (minimum cost: AU$19.56 million; range: AU$16.87 million-AU$20.69 million). Our model provides an adaptable and general assessment tool for cat reductions in Australia and potentially elsewhere, and provides relative culling costs for the Kangaroo Island campaign specifically.

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“…These results show that Compudose100™ can be used to induce and prolong oestrus behaviour in queens and future research should extend to field trials for developing methods of using MHJ queens in situ. These might include the development of lures using urine from MHJ queens to use with existing detection and control methods (e.g., the Felixer; [ 44 ]) or the release of radio-collared MHJ queens to find the remaining cats within an area after traditional methods have eradicated the majority of the cats, which has been critical for the success of eradication of other species e.g., goats [ 45 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of the Mata Hari Judas Queen (Felis catus)

Murray

Rogie

Fraser

et al. 2020

Animals

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Cats (Felis catus) are significant predators of mammals, birds, frogs and reptiles and are implicated in mammal species extinctions in Australia. Current controls fail to eradicate entire populations allowing survivors to re-establish. The use of the Mata Hari Judas (MHJ) technique, i.e., inducing prolonged oestrus using hormone implants, can enhance the eradication of remnant animals and would greatly improve conservation efforts. The hypotheses tested were that hormone implants could induce prolonged oestrus in queens (adult female cats), and that prolonging oestrus would result in sustained attractiveness to toms (adult male cats). Queens (n = 14) were randomly allocated to five treatments including a control and four treatments using hormone implants. Queens were observed daily; alone and during indirect contact with a tom for 30 consecutive days. There were significant increases (p < 0.001) in oestrus duration (19 to 27 days) for entire and ovariohysterectomised queens given Compudose100™ implants (1/8 or 1/4 implant). This study shows that it is possible to induce and prolong oestrus in queens using Compudose100™ implants where these queens are attractive to toms. The MHJ queen is a new tool with the potential to enhance the detection and thus the control of feral cats in remnant populations.

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Target specificity of the felixer grooming “trap”

Cited by 29 publications

References 32 publications

Rapid recolonisation of feral cats following intensive culling in a semi-isolated context

Rapid recolonisation of feral cats following intensive culling in a semi-isolated context

Predicting targets and costs for feral‐cat reduction on large islands using stochastic population models

Development of the Mata Hari Judas Queen (Felis catus)

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