Is cat hunting by Indigenous tracking experts an effective way to reduce cat impacts on threatened species?
Rachel Paltridge
A , Nolia Napangati Ward B , John Tjupurrula West B and Kate Crossing A
A Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area, Desert Support Services, 76 Wittenoom Street, East Perth, WA 6004, Australia.
B Tjamu Tjamu Aboriginal Corporation, Kiwirrkurra Community, PMB 83 via Alice Springs, NT 0872, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: rachelpaltridge@dss.org.au
Wildlife Research 47(8) 709-719 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20035
Submitted: 1 April 2020 Accepted: 26 June 2020 Published: 1 September 2020
Abstract
Context: Feral cat is a favoured food item in some Australian Indigenous communities. We describe how cats are hunted and whether cat hunting can contribute to the persistence of threatened species.
Aims: To determine whether cat hunting by expert trackers has the potential to be an effective method of managing predation impacts on threatened species at key sites.
Methods: We recorded all cats captured on the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous protected area (Kiwirrkurra IPA) over a 5-year period by offering incentive payments for hunters to report their catch. For a subset of hunts, we measured the duration and distance of the hunt. We compared the frequency of occurrence of cat tracks in 2-ha track plots between the hunting zone and more remote, unmanaged areas. At a finer scale, we compared cat presence at bilby burrows inside and outside the hunting zone.
Key results: In all, 130 cats were removed from the Kiwirrkurra IPA from 2014 to 2019. Hunts took an average of 62 min to complete and a team of four hunters could catch up to four cats in a single day. Although cats still occurred throughout the hunting zone, we found that cat detections at track plots were less likely in the areas where cats were hunted. Long-term data suggest that threatened species have persisted better in areas where there is an active presence of hunters.
Conclusions: Cat hunting by Indigenous tracking experts is an efficient method of despatching cats at localised sites. Following footprints on foot facilitates the targeting of individual cats that are hunting at threatened species burrows. More rigorous studies are required to determine whether cat hunting significantly reduces predation on threatened species, or whether there are other co-benefits of maintaining a presence of hunters in the landscape (such as fine-scale fire management) that are more important for the persistence of vulnerable prey.
Implications: Wherever open sandy substrates occur, there is potential to employ Indigenous expert trackers to assist with the removal of problem cats, such as, for example, to complete cat eradication inside fenced reintroduction sites, or at times of peak prey vulnerability, such as breeding events or after bushfires.
Additional keywords: ethnozoology, pest control, threatened species.
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