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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 46(2)

Whose scat is that? Determining recognition of predator scat by Australian mammals

M. C. Edwards https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1561-1942 A B C * , J. M. Hoy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6337-5761 B D , S. I. FitzGibbon D and P. J. Murray A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Agriculture and Environmental Science, University of Southern Queensland, 487-535 West Street, Darling Heights, Toowoomba, Qld, Australia.

B Hidden Vale Research Station, The University of Queensland, 617 Grandchester Mount Mort Road, Grandchester, Qld, Australia.

C School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, 5391 Warrego Highway, Gatton, Qld, Australia.

D School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, Australia.

* Correspondence to: meg.edwards@unisq.edu.au

Handling Editor: Stuart Cairns

Australian Mammalogy 46, AM23050 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23050
Submitted: 22 November 2023  Accepted: 26 February 2024  Published: 12 March 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.

Abstract

Introduced predators have been implicated in the extinction or range reduction of many Australian species, potentially due to native wildlife exhibiting prey naivety. We used traps with predator faeces present, monitored by camera traps, to determine if Australian mammals responded to native and introduced predator faeces. The presence of either faeces did not influence the trap or camera captures of any species.

Keywords: behaviour, brush-tailed phascogale, brushtail possum, camera trap, marsupial, northern brown bandicoot, predator–prey, predator scat, prey naivety, recognition.

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