Peak hour in the bush: linear anthropogenic clearings funnel predator and prey species

Dawson, Stuart J.; Adams, Peter J.; Moseby, Katherine E.; Waddington, Kris I.; Kobryn, H.; Bateman, Philip W.; Fleming, Patricia A.

doi:10.1111/aec.12553

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(66 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our results provide strong support for a positive association between introduced predators and roads, adding to the growing body of evidence that suggests a significant positive effect of roads on predator activity (Carter, Potts, & Roshier, 2019; Dawson et al., 2018; Raiter, Hobbs, Possingham, Valentine, & Prober, 2018; Wysong et al., 2020). The potential for roads to facilitate predator movements has been widely reported in the literature, with several studies documenting the frequent use of roads by predators (Bischof, Gjevestad, Ordiz, Eldegard, & Milleret, 2019; Read et al., 2015) and others deliberately targeting roads to enhance the likelihood of capture (Bubela et al., 1998; McGregor et al., 2015; Towerton et al., 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Evaluation of camera placement for detection of free‐ranging carnivores; implications for assessing population changes

Geyle

Stevens

Duffy

et al. 2020

Ecol Sol and Evidence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. Introduced carnivores are often cryptic, making it difficult to quantify their presence in ecosystems, and assess how this varies in relation to management interventions. Survey design should thus seek to improve detectability and maximize statistical power to ensure sound inference regarding carnivore population trends. Roads may facilitate carnivore movements, possibly leading to high detectability. Therefore, targeting roads may improve inferences about carnivore populations. 2. We assessed our ability to monitor feral cats Felis catus and red foxes Vulpes vulpes on-and off-road, with explicit consideration of the location of monitoring sites on our ability to detect population changes. We also assessed whether there was evidence of spatial or temporal interaction between these species that might influence their roaduse. 3. Surveys were conducted in a conservation reserve in southeastern Australia between 2016 and 2018. At each of 30 sites, we deployed two motion-sensor cameras, one on-road, and the other off-road. Using occupancy models, we estimated cat and fox occupancy and detectability, and conducted a power analysis to assess our ability to detect declines in occupancy under three monitoring regimes (efforts targeted equally on-and off-road, efforts targeted entirely off-road and efforts targeted entirely onroad). 4. On average, on-road detectability was seven times higher for cats and three times higher for foxes. Targeting survey effort on-road yielded the greatest power for detecting declines in both species, but our ability to detect smaller declines decreased with decreasing initial occupancy probability. No level of decline was detectable for cats This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Evaluation of camera placement for detection of free‐ranging carnivores; implications for assessing population changes

Geyle

Stevens

Duffy

et al. 2020

Ecol Sol and Evidence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is the potential that the wider field of view of the road camera compared with the forest camera could be responsible for the increase in feral cat detections. We feel that our conclusion that feral cats prefer to use roads is well supported and has been found by other studies in Australia (Dawson et al, 2018; Wysong, Iacona, et al, 2020). By preferentially using roads, feral cats can improve their foraging efficiency in complex habitats by using habitat edges formed by the roads specifically for hunting.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Laying low: Rugged lowland rainforest preferred by feral cats in the Australian Wet Tropics

Bruce

Williams

Amin

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is the potential that the wider field of view of the road camera compared with the forest camera could be responsible for the increase in feral cat detections. We feel that our conclusion that feral cats prefer to use roads is well supported and has been found by other studies in Australia (Dawson et al, 2018;. By preferentially using roads, feral cats can improve their foraging efficiency in complex habitats by using habitat edges formed by the roads specifically for hunting.…”

Section: F I G U R Esupporting

confidence: 87%

Laying low: Rugged lowland rainforest preferred by feral cats in the Australian Wet Tropics.

Bruce

Williams

Amin

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Invasive mesopredators, particularly feral cats, are responsible for the decline of many species of native mammals worldwide. In Australia, there is currently limited understanding of the drivers of feral cat occupancy in tropical rainforests, the most biodiverse ecosystem in the continent. We carried out camera-trapping surveys at 108 sites across eight study sites. Camera-trap pairs were placed at 2.2km intervals along roads, with one camera-trap facing the road and another 50m into the forest to ensure that individuals who prefer or avoid roads could be detected. Single-species occupancy analysis was implemented to investigate how environmental factors influence feral cat distribution in the Australian Wet Tropics. There were 524 independent feral cat detections, 11 times higher than previously recorded in the Australian Wet Tropics. The main environmental factors influencing feral cat distribution were a positive association with terrain ruggedness, a negative association with elevation, and a higher affinity for rainforest than eucalypt forest. These findings were congruent with global studies on feral cat ecology but disagreed with similar surveys within Australia. Understory complexity is reduced in rugged terrain, which could improve feral cats’ hunting efficiency, while increasingly harsh and consistently wet weather conditions at higher elevations drive their preference for lowland rainforest. Feral cats were heavily associated with roads, supporting the theory that roads facilitate access and proliferation of feral cats within more remote parts of the rainforest. Higher elevation rainforest with no roads could act as refugia for native prey species within the critical weight range. Regular monitoring of existing roads should be implemented to monitor feral cats, and new linear infrastructure should be limited to prevent encroachment into these areas. This is pertinent as climate change modelling suggests that habitats at higher elevations will become similar to lower elevations, potentially making the environment more suitable for feral cat populations.

show abstract

Peak hour in the bush: linear anthropogenic clearings funnel predator and prey species

Cited by 17 publications

References 44 publications

Evaluation of camera placement for detection of free‐ranging carnivores; implications for assessing population changes

Evaluation of camera placement for detection of free‐ranging carnivores; implications for assessing population changes

Laying low: Rugged lowland rainforest preferred by feral cats in the Australian Wet Tropics

Laying low: Rugged lowland rainforest preferred by feral cats in the Australian Wet Tropics.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About