Greenwell Claire N, Calver Michael C, Loneragan Neil R
Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia.
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Jul 16;9(7):445. doi: 10.3390/ani9070445.
Domestic cats have a cosmopolitan distribution, commonly residing in urban, suburban and peri-urban environments that are also critical for biodiversity conservation. This study describes the impact of a desexed, free-roaming cat on the behavior of a threatened coastal seabird, the Australian Fairy Tern, , in Mandurah, south-western Australia. Wildlife cameras and direct observations of cat incursions into the tern colony at night, decapitated carcasses of adult terns, dead, injured or missing tern chicks, and cat tracks and scats around the colony provided strong evidence of cat predation, which led to an initial change in nesting behavior and, ultimately, colony abandonment and the reproductive failure of 111 nests. The death of six breeding terns from the population was a considerable loss for this threatened species and had the potential to limit population growth. This study highlights the significant negative impacts of free-roaming cats on wildlife and the need for monitoring and controlling cats at sites managed for species conservation. It also provides strong evidence against the practice of trap-neuter-release programs and demonstrates that desexed cats can continue to negatively impact wildlife post-release directly through predation, but also indirectly through fundamental changes in prey behavior and a reduction in parental care.
家猫分布广泛，常见于城市、郊区和城郊环境，而这些环境对生物多样性保护也至关重要。本研究描述了一只已绝育的自由放养猫对澳大利亚西南部曼杜拉地区一种濒危沿海海鸟——澳洲小燕鸥行为的影响。野生动物摄像机以及对夜间猫侵入燕鸥栖息地的直接观察、成年燕鸥被斩首的尸体、死亡、受伤或失踪的燕鸥雏鸟，还有栖息地周围的猫足迹和粪便，都提供了猫捕食行为的有力证据，这导致了筑巢行为的初步改变，最终致使栖息地被遗弃，111个鸟巢繁殖失败。该种群中有6只繁殖期的燕鸥死亡，对这个濒危物种来说是巨大损失，且有可能限制种群增长。本研究强调了自由放养的猫对野生动物的重大负面影响，以及在为物种保护而管理的场所监测和控制猫的必要性。它还提供了有力证据反对诱捕 - 绝育 - 放归计划的做法，并表明绝育后的猫在放归后仍可直接通过捕食对野生动物产生负面影响，还会间接通过猎物行为的根本变化和亲代抚育的减少来产生影响。
