Introduced cats <i>Felis catus</i> eating a continental fauna: inventory and traits of Australian mammal species killed

Woolley, Leigh‐Ann; Geyle, Hayley M.; Murphy, Brett P.; Legge, Sarah; Palmer, Russell; Dickman, Christopher R.; Augusteyn, John; Comer, Sarah; Doherty, Tim S.; Eager, Charlie; Edwards, Glenn; Harley, Dan; Leiper, Ian; McDonald, Peter J.; McGregor, Hugh; Moseby, Katherine E.; Myers, Cecilia; Read, John; Riley, Joanna; Stokeld, Danielle; Turpin, Jeff M.; Woinarski, John C. Z.

doi:10.1111/mam.12167

Cited by 54 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…Evidence that feral cats exert a detrimental impact on Australian fauna comes from a large range of studies on cat ecology and diet; on the spatial and temporal patterns of native species decline in relation to the spread of cats across the continent; from comparative analyses of the ecological and life-history correlates of decline; and from experiments where the response of native species is measured after cats are controlled or removed (reviewed in Doherty et al 2017;Woinarski et al 2019b). Cats have had a particularly profound impact on Australian mammals, causing or contributing to most of the .30 species extinctions in the past 250 years (Woinarski et al 2015(Woinarski et al , 2019aWoolley et al 2019). Cats continue to cause declines in native fauna; a large proportion of extant native terrestrial mammal species are highly susceptible to predation from cats (Radford et al 2018), and many of Australia's threatened mammals now occur only on small islands that were never invaded by cats or foxes, Vulpes vulpes, or as translocated populations to islands and small fenced mainland enclosures that exclude cats and foxes (Legge et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

We need to worry about Bella and Charlie: the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife

et al. 2020

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Research and management attention on the impacts of the introduced domestic cat (Felis catus) on Australian fauna have focussed mainly on the feral population. Here, we summarise the evidence for impacts of predation by pet cats on Australian wildlife. We collate examples of local wildlife population decline and extirpation as a result, at least in part, of predation by pet cats. We assemble information across 66 studies of predation by pet cats worldwide (including 24 Australian studies) to estimate the predation toll of pet cats in Australia, plus the predation pressure per unit area in residential areas. We compared these estimates to those published for feral cats in Australia. The per capita kill rate of pet cats is 25% that of feral cats. However, pet cats live at much higher densities, so the predation rate of pets per square kilometre in residential areas is 28–52 times larger than predation rates by feral cats in natural environments, and 1.3–2.3 times greater than predation rates per km2 by feral cats living in urban areas. Pet cats kill introduced species more often than do feral cats living in natural environments, but, nonetheless, the toll of native animals killed per square kilometre by pet cats in residential areas is still much higher than the toll per square kilometre by feral cats. There is no evidence that pet cats exert significant control of introduced species. The high predation toll of pet cats in residential areas, the documented examples of declines and extirpations in populations of native species caused by pet cats, and potential pathways for other, indirect effects (e.g. from disease, landscapes of fear, ecological footprints), and the context of extraordinary impacts from feral cats on Australian fauna, together support a default position that pet cat impacts are serious and should be reduced. From a technical perspective, the pet cat impacts can be reduced more effectively and humanely than those of feral cats, while also enhancing pet cat welfare. We review the management options for reducing predation by pet cats, and discuss the opportunities and challenges for improved pet cat management and welfare.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

We need to worry about Bella and Charlie: the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife

et al. 2020

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“…This is around 12.4 % of the average body mass for our sample of cats and therefore similar to predicted prey range based on their body mass (e.g., 13% [78], 11% [79]). Paltridge et al [57] similarly report common prey in the range of 10-350 g. Animals within the critical weight range (35 g-5.5 kg) are ideal weight range for cat prey [5,80]. Such small prey species would be unlikely to pose a challenge to the cat in terms of the bite force required to handle the prey.…”

Section: Prey Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Larger prey have also been recorded in the diets of feral cats in Australia [80], albeit less frequently [7,11,80]. For example, Dickman [7] records bird prey up to 3.5 kg on islands as exceptions.…”

Section: Prey Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arguably, some of these could represent prey that had escaped capture (e.g., birds). Many authors report that carrion is rarely consumed by feral cats (e.g., [57,80]), although this may depend on alternative food availability. This avoidance of carrion is behind the difficulty reported in baiting feral cats and the extensive work undertaken in developing poison baits that are attractive, especially at times of high food availability [99][100][101].…”

Section: Limitations Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Body Size and Bite Force of Stray and Feral Cats—Are Bigger or Older Cats Taking the Largest or More Difficult-to-Handle Prey?

Fleming

Crawford

Auckland

et al. 2020

Animals

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As carnivorans rely heavily on their head and jaws for prey capture and handling, skull morphology and bite force can therefore reflect their ability to take larger or more difficult-to-handle prey. For 568 feral and stray cats (Felis catus), we recorded their demographics (sex and age), source location (feral or stray) and morphological measures (body mass, body condition); we estimated potential bite force from skull measurements for n = 268 of these cats, and quantified diet composition from stomach contents for n = 358. We compared skull measurements to estimate their bite force and determine how it varied with sex, age, body mass, body condition. Body mass had the strongest influence of bite force. In our sample, males were 36.2% heavier and had 20.0% greater estimated bite force (206.2 ± 44.7 Newtons, n = 168) than females (171.9 ± 29.3 Newtons, n = 120). However, cat age was the strongest predictor of the size of prey that they had taken, with older cats taking larger prey. The predictive power of this relationship was poor though (r2 < 0.038, p < 0.003), because even small cats ate large prey and some of the largest cats ate small prey, such as invertebrates. Cats are opportunistic, generalist carnivores taking a broad range of prey. Their ability to handle larger prey increases as the cats grow, increasing their jaw strength, and improving their hunting skills, but even the smallest cats in our sample had tackled and consumed large and potentially ‘dangerous’ prey that would likely have put up a defence.

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“…In the analyses of Radford et al [53], all 246 non-volant species of Australian terrestrial mammals were assessed for their population-level susceptibility to predation by the domestic cat (Table 1), as well as to predation by the introduced red fox Vulpes vulpes . Ground-dwelling species were found to be more predator-susceptible than arboreal species and small to medium-sized species (adult female body weight 35 g–3.5 kg) more susceptible than their smaller or larger counterparts (also characterised by more detailed modelling of Australian native mammals in cat dietary collations: [54]). Notably, predator-susceptibility was strongly associated with the conservation status of species as assessed by the IUCN (including taxonomic updates documented in Woinarski et al [48]): predator-susceptible species were much more likely to be threatened or now extinct, whereas species that were rated as not-susceptible or of low susceptibility to predation by introduced predators were more likely to be of least concern.…”

Section: A Decision–framework To Evaluate Risks Of Hybrid Cats To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Risks to Wildlife from Free-Roaming Hybrid Cats: The Proposed Introduction of Pet Savannah Cats to Australia as a Case Study

Dickman

Legge

2019

Animals

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Simple SummaryThe domestic cat, Felis catus, is often cross-bred with other species in the cat family to produce hybrid or ‘designer’ cats that are sought by people as pets. However, hybrid cats are often surrendered to wildlife shelters, or released, which leads to concern that they may establish free-roaming populations and damage native wildlife. In 2008, the Australian government rejected an application, on precautionary grounds, to import savannah cats (hybrids of the domestic cat and serval Leptailurus serval) into the country. We review the limited information informing this decision and then present a framework that identifies the native mammal species likely to have been most at risk of predation from savannah cats if importation and establishment had occurred. Assuming that savannah cats hunt similar prey to those that are hunted by both parent species, we estimate that 91% of Australia’s extant terrestrial mammal fauna would likely face some risk of predation from savannah cats, including 93% of non-volant mammal species that have threatened conservation status. The framework results strongly validate the decision to ban savannah cats from Australia. We suggest that our framework approach could be adapted to assess the likely risks that are posed by the arrival of other hybrid cats or hybrids of other animals.AbstractHybrid cats—created by crossing different species within the family Felidae—are popular pets, but they could potentially threaten native species if they escape and establish free-roaming populations. To forestall this possibility, the Australian government imposed a specific ban on importation of the savannah cat, a hybrid created by crossing the domestic cat Felis catus and serval Leptailurus serval, in 2008. We develop a decision–framework that identifies those species of non-volant native mammals in Australia that would likely have been susceptible to predation by savannah cats if importation and establishment had occurred. We assumed that savannah cats would hunt ecologically similar prey to those that are depredated by both the domestic cat and the serval, and categorised native mammals as having different levels of susceptibility to predation by savannah cats based on their size, habitat range, and behaviour. Using this framework, we assessed savannah cats as likely to add at least 28 extant native mammal species to the 168 that are known already to be susceptible to predation by the domestic cat, posing a risk to 91% of Australia’s extant non-volant terrestrial mammal species (n = 216) and to 93% of threatened mammal species. The framework could be generalised to assess risks from any other hybrid taxa.

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Introduced cats Felis catus eating a continental fauna: inventory and traits of Australian mammal species killed

Abstract: This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Cited by 54 publications

References 70 publications

We need to worry about Bella and Charlie: the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife

We need to worry about Bella and Charlie: the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife

Body Size and Bite Force of Stray and Feral Cats—Are Bigger or Older Cats Taking the Largest or More Difficult-to-Handle Prey?

Assessing Risks to Wildlife from Free-Roaming Hybrid Cats: The Proposed Introduction of Pet Savannah Cats to Australia as a Case Study

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