School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.
Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Jan 13;288(1942):20201194. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1194. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
Alien mammalian carnivores have contributed disproportionately to global loss of biodiversity. In Australia, predation by the feral cat and red fox is one of the most significant causes of the decline of native vertebrates. To discover why cats have greater impacts on prey than native predators, we compared the ecology of the feral cat to a marsupial counterpart, the spotted-tailed quoll. Individual prey are 20-200 times more likely to encounter feral cats, because of the combined effects of cats' higher population densities, greater intensity of home-range use and broader habitat preferences. These characteristics also mean that the costs to the prey of adopting anti-predator behaviours against feral cats are likely to be much higher than adopting such behaviours in response to spotted-tailed quolls, due to the reliability and ubiquity of feral cat cues. These results help explain the devastating impacts of cats on wildlife in Australia and other parts of the world.
外来哺乳动物捕食者不成比例地导致了全球生物多样性的丧失。在澳大利亚，野猫和赤狐的捕食是本地脊椎动物减少的最主要原因之一。为了探究为什么猫科动物对猎物的影响大于本地捕食者，我们将野猫的生态学与有袋动物的斑尾袋狸进行了比较。由于猫的种群密度更高、使用领域的强度更大以及更广泛的栖息地偏好，单个猎物遭遇野猫的可能性要高出 20-200 倍。这些特征还意味着，猎物为了躲避野猫而采取的防御行为的成本可能会比针对斑尾袋狸的防御行为的成本高得多，因为野猫的信号是可靠且无处不在的。这些结果有助于解释猫科动物对澳大利亚和世界其他地区野生动物的破坏性影响。
