Cats (Felis catus) are more abundant and are the dominant predator of woylies (Bettongia penicillata) after sustained fox (Vulpes vulpes) control

Marlow, Nicola; Thomas, Neil; Williams, Andrew Ae; MacMahon, Brian; Lawson, John W.; Hitchen, Yvette; Angus, John; Berry, Oliver

doi:10.1071/zo14024

Cited by 108 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Selectively removing predators from invaded ecosystems can have undesirable consequences through the release of their introduced prey (Bergstrom et al, 2009) or other introduced predators (Marlow et al, 2015;Norbury et al, 2013;Rayner et al, 2007). Management of a single species, without regard for its flow-on effects on other species, may result in ecological surprises and unintended consequences.…”

Section: Integrated Multi-species Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Potgieter et al, 2013). If lethal control is used, it should be applied using whole-of-ecosystem approaches to prevent unexpected and undesirable outcomes (Colman et al, 2014;Marlow et al, 2015;Norbury et al, 2013;Ruscoe et al, 2011).…”

Section: Integrated Multi-species Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, such management programs often occur without consideration of the density-independent impacts of predators ('functional' impacts; outlined below), and with scant regard for how they might interact with other stressors that are impacting ecosystems at the same time (herein 'concomitant threats'). This has led to unpredictable outcomes of invasive predator control; sometimes it is ineffectual (Bodey et al, 2011), or worse, results in a net negative outcome for biodiversity (Marlow et al, 2015;Norbury et al, 2013). This suggests an urgent need to refine our understanding of invasive predator management, such as when and where to use lethal control, and to consider alternative means of reducing the impact of invasive predators on native biodiversity aside from lethal control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Multiple threats, or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances

Doherty

Dickman

Nimmo

et al. 2015

Biological Conservation

212

202

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Integrated Multi-species Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Integrated Multi-species Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multiple threats, or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances

Doherty

Dickman

Nimmo

et al. 2015

Biological Conservation

212

202

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…For example, in northern Australia, recent research has indicated that predation by feral cats has greater impact in areas exposed to more frequent and/or extensive fires (McGregor et al 2014). In south-western Australia, concerted management action has led to some benefit through reduction in the abundance of the European red fox, but that change in abundance has now led to increased impacts of predation by feral cats (Marlow et al 2015). Many species now face multiple threats: for example, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus is affected by disease (including Chlamydia and a retrovirus), predation by feral (and stray) dogs, timber harvesting, changed fire regimes, road traffic, habitat loss and fragmentation, drought and days of extreme heat.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the conservation status of Australian mammals

Burbidge

Harrison²

2015

Therya

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: This paper provides a summary of results from a recent comprehensive review of the conservation status of all Australian land and marine mammal species and subspecies. Since the landmark date of European settlement of Australia (1788), at least 28 of the ca. 272 Australian endemic land mammal species have been rendered extinct. Results and Discussion:Extinctions have occurred at a more or less consistent rate of one to two species per decade since the 1840s, with that rate continuing unabated. A further 55 species from that original fauna are now threatened, and an additional 42 are Near Threatened. Although many factors have contributed to these declines and extinctions, and the array of threats varies amongst individual species, the threat that has had (and is continuing to have) most detrimental impact upon terrestrial mammal species is predation by the introduced cat Felis catus and European red fox Vulpes vulpes. There has been some successful broad-scale management of the fox, but the threat posed by feral cats remains largely unabated. For the 55 species occurring in Australian marine waters, the information base is mostly too meagre to assess conservation status other than as Data Deficient. For the Australian mammal fauna generally, the current conservation management effort is insufficient, with ongoing trends for decline in many species -for example, of 49 species whose conservation status changed over the period 1992-2012, 38 had deteriorating conservation status whereas only 11 had improving status.

show abstract

“…The most notable exclusion is feral cats (Felis catus), a predator of bilbies, whose populations are thought to strongly interact with targeted fox baiting (Marlow et al 2015). In a system with both foxes and cats, a resultant release of cats after fox control might strongly influence conservation outcomes for bilbies for a given baiting schedule.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserving Australia's predator-threatened mammals

Ringma¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Australian mammals are amongst the most threatened in the world. Predation by invasive cats and foxes has driven many species to extinction, and has caused rapid declines and extirpation among others. ManyAustralian mammals now only persist in a small number of refugial populations of few individuals with a high risk of extinction from demographic population failure and catastrophic events. The persistence of many Australian mammal species now depends on continuous management, and the creation of new populations through translocations into predator controlled areas. Predator exclusion fences have become pivotal for effectively abating the predation threat for remnant populations and translocations. However, translocations are notoriously costly and failure prone, making it particularly important to identify protocols that maximize the likelihood of success. Thorough assessments are therefore required to improve outcomes, but knowledge to make them is often lacking. In this thesis, I address key knowledge gaps associated with translocation and predator management for Australian mammals, with particular regard to conservation fences.In Chapter 2 I address the issue of uncertainty of the accuracy of habitat models. Reintroductions often rely on models to identify suitable habitat, and such modelling requires occurrence data from a representative sample of a species' niche. However, the historic distributions of species that have subsequently declined are often poorly sampled. Therefore, we need to know how thoroughly a species' historic distribution was sampled before habitat suitability models can be trusted. I propose and test a method for determining whether a species' niche is well sampled pre-decline for Australian marsupials, by comparing accumulation curves of niche volume when data are arranged in forward and reverse chronological order. I found that accumulation curves can be used to test if a species' niche is poorly sampled, and that poor association between chronologically and randomly arranged data implies an under sampled niche.A good understanding of how translocated animals use the space within a fence is crucial in making choices about its size. In Chapter 3, I investigate the spatial use of woylies (Bettongia penicillata) a species of acute conservation concern at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Scotia Sanctuary in the arid extreme of their known historic distribution. Using GPS tracking devices, I measured the movements of woylies in two adjacent fenced populations. The higher density population occupied foraging ranges similar in size to those previously reported (37ha) while woylies at lower density had homes ranges 2.5 times greater in size (96 ha).The woylies in the lower density population increased the size of their foraging range by covering more unique ground each evening, and spending more time further away from their nest. While the differences between the two populations are most likely related to density, it remains uncertain whether intraspecific competition or environm...

show abstract

Cats (Felis catus) are more abundant and are the dominant predator of woylies (Bettongia penicillata) after sustained fox (Vulpes vulpes) control

Cited by 108 publications

References 57 publications

Multiple threats, or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances

Multiple threats, or multiplying the threats? Interactions between invasive predators and other ecological disturbances

A review of the conservation status of Australian mammals

Conserving Australia's predator-threatened mammals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About