Cats are a key threatening factor to the survival of local populations of native small mammals in Australia’s tropical savannas: evidence from translocation trials with Rattus tunneyi
Katherine Tuft
A B R , Sarah Legge A C D E , Anke S. K. Frank F G H I , Alex I. James A , Tegan May A J , Ethan Page A , Ian J. Radford K , John C. Z. Woinarski E , Alaric Fisher L , Michael J. Lawes M , Iain J. Gordon N O P Q and Chris N. Johnson I
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Mornington Sanctuary, PMB 925, Derby, WA 6728, Australia.
B Arid Recovery, Olympic Dam, PO Box 147, Roxby Downs, SA 5725, Australia.
C National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, ACT 0200, Australia.
D Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.
E National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia.
F School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
G Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany.
H Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
I School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
J The Nature Conservancy, 2424 Spruce Street, Boulder, CO 80302, USA.
K Science and Conservation Division, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, PO Box 942, Kununurra, WA 6743, Australia.
L Department of Land Resource Management, Northern Territory Government, PO Box 496, Palmerston, NT 0831, Australia.
M School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville 3209, South Africa.
N Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
O James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, Scotland, UK.
P Central Queensland University, Townsville, Qld 4812, Australia.
Q Land & Water, CSIRO, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
R Corresponding author. Email: katherine.tuft@aridrecovery.org.au
Wildlife Research 48(7) 654-662 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20193
Submitted: 16 November 2020 Accepted: 18 April 2021 Published: 2 July 2021
Abstract
Context: Invasive predators are a key threat to biodiversity worldwide. In Australia, feral cats are likely to be responsible for many extinctions of native mammal species in the south and centre of the continent.
Aims: Here we examine the effect of feral cats on native rodent populations in the second of two translocation experiments.
Methods: In a wild-to-wild translocation, we introduced pale field rats, Rattus tunneyi, whose populations are declining in the wild, into two pairs of enclosures where accessibility by feral cats was manipulated.
Key results: Individual rats translocated into enclosures accessible to cats were rapidly extirpated after cats were first detected visiting the enclosures. Rats in the enclosure not exposed to cats were 6.2 times more likely to survive than those exposed to cats. Two individual cats were responsible for the deaths of all but 1 of 18 cat-accessible rats. Rats in the site with denser ground cover persisted better than in the site with more open cover.
Conclusions: These results are consistent with our previous study of a different native rat species in the same experimental setup, and provide further evidence that, even at low densities, feral cats can drive local populations of small mammals to extinction.
Implications: Effective feral cat control may be necessary to enable recovery of small mammals.
Keywords: feral cat, extinction, threatened species, predation pressure, small mammal populations.
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