AVA Media release<\/a> dated – Friday, 06 May 2016<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been known for some time that feral cats are a serious threat to small to medium-sized native mammals, but a ground-breaking study into their behaviour has revealed how feral cats are killing more efficiently than thought. This has significant implications for the management of feral cats.<\/p>\n
Dr John Kanowski, Australian Wildlife Conservancy, will present the results of the research at the Australian Veterinary Association Annual Conference this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of the study was to examine the hunting behaviours and distances travelled by feral cats and their impact on small mammals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The study involved fitting GPS collars to 66 cats in wildlife sanctuaries in the Kimberley, Western Australia and Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, to track their movements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn both regions, cats were observed to travel long distances outside their regular home ranges, particularly to areas burnt by intense fires, which had removed almost all ground cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe assumed they travelled to these areas because the exposed prey made them easier to hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
To test this idea, the team set-up miniature video cameras on cat collars, a first for feral cats in Australia, to watch them in action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe footage showed us where cats went and how they hunted. We also recorded footage of cats killing reptiles, birds and frogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn average, each cat hunted 20 times a day with a 30 per cent success rate. So on average, each cat killed seven animals a day, but ate only two-thirds of the animals they killed. This means that analyses of cat stomach contents will underestimate their impact. Data suggests that feral cats are probably killing around three million native animals a year in the Mornington-Marion Downs (Kimberley) area alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to Dr Kanowski, a key finding was that the habitat had an overwhelming impact on hunting success.\u201cIn open areas, particularly where there had been fires, 80 per cent of hunts resulted in a kill but when cats attempted to hunt among dense grass or rocky country, only 20 per cent of hunts resulted in a kill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that predation success by feral cats is highly responsive to ground cover is an important breakthrough. The result implies that impacts of feral cats can be reduced through effective fire management and feral herbivore control, although it is likely that direct control measures will also be required,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeral cats are difficult to control at a landscape-scale and currently there\u2019s no silver bullet for saving mammals from feral cats. More research is needed to identify broad-scale solutions. Until then we need to implement strategies likely to deliver the best returns \u2013 such as establishing more feral predator-free areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
For further information and requests for interviews contact the AVA media office on (02) 9431 5062, 0439 628 898 or media@ava.com.au.<\/p>\n
The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) is the only national association representing veterinarians in Australia. Founded in 1921, the AVA today represents 7500 members working in all areas of animal science, health and welfare.<\/p>\n
Source: Feral cats: the greatest threat to Australia\u2019s native animals | Australian Veterinary Association<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love the diversity of our profession! Vets are working for societal good in so many spaces ! (Dr M) Source: AVA Media release dated – Friday, 06 May 2016 It\u2019s been known for some time that feral cats are a serious threat to small to medium-sized native mammals, but a ground-breaking study into their behaviour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2000],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4042,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions\/4042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}