A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management
Feral cats (Felis catus) have a wide global distribution and cause significant damage to native fauna. Reducing their impacts requires an understanding of how they use habitat and which parts of the landscape should be the focus of management. We reviewed 27 experimental and observational studies co...
Published in: | Wildlife Research |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
CSIRO Publishing
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 |
id |
ftbioone:10.1071/WR14159 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftbioone:10.1071/WR14159 2024-06-02T07:56:48+00:00 A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis world 2015-02-18 text/HTML https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 en eng CSIRO Publishing doi:10.1071/WR14159 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 Text 2015 ftbioone https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 2024-05-07T00:50:12Z Feral cats (Felis catus) have a wide global distribution and cause significant damage to native fauna. Reducing their impacts requires an understanding of how they use habitat and which parts of the landscape should be the focus of management. We reviewed 27 experimental and observational studies conducted around the world over the last 35 years that aimed to examine habitat use by feral and unowned cats. Our aims were to: (1) summarise the current body of literature on habitat use by feral and unowned cats in the context of applicable ecological theory (i.e. habitat selection, foraging theory); (2) develop testable hypotheses to help fill important knowledge gaps in the current body of knowledge on this topic; and (3) build a conceptual framework that will guide the activities of researchers and managers in reducing feral cat impacts. We found that feral cats exploit a diverse range of habitats including arid deserts, shrublands and grasslands, fragmented agricultural landscapes, urban areas, glacial valleys, equatorial to sub-Antarctic islands and a range of forest and woodland types. Factors invoked to explain habitat use by cats included prey availability, predation/competition, shelter availability and human resource subsidies, but the strength of evidence used to support these assertions was low, with most studies being observational or correlative. We therefore provide a list of key directions that will assist conservation managers and researchers in better understanding and ameliorating the impact of feral cats at a scale appropriate for useful management and research. Future studies will benefit from employing an experimental approach and collecting data on the relative abundance and activity of prey and other predators. This might include landscape-scale experiments where the densities of predators, prey or competitors are manipulated and then the response in cat habitat use is measured. Effective management of feral cat populations could target high-use areas, such as linear features and structurally ... Text Antarc* Antarctic BioOne Online Journals Antarctic Wildlife Research 41 5 435 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
BioOne Online Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftbioone |
language |
English |
description |
Feral cats (Felis catus) have a wide global distribution and cause significant damage to native fauna. Reducing their impacts requires an understanding of how they use habitat and which parts of the landscape should be the focus of management. We reviewed 27 experimental and observational studies conducted around the world over the last 35 years that aimed to examine habitat use by feral and unowned cats. Our aims were to: (1) summarise the current body of literature on habitat use by feral and unowned cats in the context of applicable ecological theory (i.e. habitat selection, foraging theory); (2) develop testable hypotheses to help fill important knowledge gaps in the current body of knowledge on this topic; and (3) build a conceptual framework that will guide the activities of researchers and managers in reducing feral cat impacts. We found that feral cats exploit a diverse range of habitats including arid deserts, shrublands and grasslands, fragmented agricultural landscapes, urban areas, glacial valleys, equatorial to sub-Antarctic islands and a range of forest and woodland types. Factors invoked to explain habitat use by cats included prey availability, predation/competition, shelter availability and human resource subsidies, but the strength of evidence used to support these assertions was low, with most studies being observational or correlative. We therefore provide a list of key directions that will assist conservation managers and researchers in better understanding and ameliorating the impact of feral cats at a scale appropriate for useful management and research. Future studies will benefit from employing an experimental approach and collecting data on the relative abundance and activity of prey and other predators. This might include landscape-scale experiments where the densities of predators, prey or competitors are manipulated and then the response in cat habitat use is measured. Effective management of feral cat populations could target high-use areas, such as linear features and structurally ... |
author2 |
Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis |
format |
Text |
author |
Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis |
spellingShingle |
Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
author_facet |
Tim S. Doherty Andrew J. Bengsen Robert A. Davis |
author_sort |
Tim S. Doherty |
title |
A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
title_short |
A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
title_full |
A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
title_fullStr |
A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
title_full_unstemmed |
A critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
title_sort |
critical review of habitat use by feral cats and key directions for future research and management |
publisher |
CSIRO Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 |
op_coverage |
world |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 |
op_relation |
doi:10.1071/WR14159 |
op_rights |
All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1071/WR14159 |
container_title |
Wildlife Research |
container_volume |
41 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
435 |
_version_ |
1800758987349557248 |