Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Western Australia, Australia.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Western Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 May 7;16(5):e0251304. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251304. eCollection 2021.
Introduced mammalian predators can have devastating impacts on recipient ecosystems and disrupt native predator-prey relationships. Feral cats (Felis catus) have been implicated in the decline and extinction of many Australian native species and developing effective and affordable methods to control them is a national priority. While there has been considerable progress in the lethal control of feral cats, effective management at landscape scales has proved challenging. Justification of the allocation of resources to feral cat control programs requires demonstration of the conservation benefit baiting provides to native species susceptible to cat predation. Here, we examined the effectiveness of a landscape-scale Eradicat® baiting program to protect threatened northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) from feral cat predation in a heterogeneous rocky landscape in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. We used camera traps and GPS collars fitted to feral cats to monitor changes in activity patterns of feral cats and northern quolls at a baited treatment site and unbaited reference site over four years. Feral cat populations appeared to be naturally sparse in our study area, and camera trap monitoring showed no significant effect of baiting on cat detections. However, mortality rates of collared feral cats ranged from 18-33% after baiting, indicating that the program was reducing cat numbers. Our study demonstrated that feral cat baiting had a positive effect on northern quoll populations, with evidence of range expansion at the treatment site. We suggest that the rugged rocky habitat preferred by northern quolls in the Pilbara buffered them to some extent from feral cat predation, and baiting was sufficient to demonstrate a positive effect in this relatively short-term project. A more strategic approach to feral cat management is likely to be required in the longer-term to maximise the efficacy of control programs and thereby improve the conservation outlook for susceptible threatened fauna.
引入的哺乳动物捕食者会对接收生态系统造成毁灭性影响，并破坏本地捕食者-猎物关系。野猫（Felis catus）已被牵连到许多澳大利亚本地物种的减少和灭绝中，因此开发有效且经济实惠的控制方法是国家的当务之急。虽然在致死性控制野猫方面已经取得了相当大的进展，但在景观尺度上进行有效的管理一直具有挑战性。将资源分配给野猫控制计划的合理性需要证明诱饵对易受猫捕食的本地物种提供的保护益处。在这里，我们检查了在西澳大利亚皮尔巴拉地区的多岩石景观中，使用 Eradicat®诱饵进行景观尺度的控制计划，以保护受威胁的北方袋狸（Dasyurus hallucatus）免受野猫捕食的效果。我们使用相机陷阱和 GPS 项圈对野猫进行监测，以监测在诱饵处理点和未诱饵对照点四年内，野猫和北方袋狸的活动模式变化。在我们的研究区域中，野猫种群似乎自然稀疏，相机陷阱监测表明诱饵对猫的检测没有明显影响。然而，套圈野猫的死亡率在诱饵后范围在 18-33%之间，这表明该计划正在减少猫的数量。我们的研究表明，野猫诱饵对北方袋狸种群有积极影响，并在处理点有证据表明其范围扩大。我们认为，北方袋狸在皮尔巴拉地区喜欢的多岩石栖息地在一定程度上缓冲了它们免受野猫捕食的影响，并且诱饵在这个相对短期的项目中足以证明其积极影响。在更长的时间内，需要采取更具战略性的方法来管理野猫，以最大限度地提高控制计划的效果，从而改善易受威胁的受保护动物的保护前景。
