Raiders of the last ark: the impacts of feral cats on small mammals in Tasmanian forest ecosystems.

摘要: Feral individuals of the cat Felis catus are recognized internationally as a threat to biodiversity. Open, non-insular systems support large proportion world's biodiversity, but population-level impacts feral cats in these rarely elucidated. This limits prioritization and assessment effectiveness management interventions. We quantified predatory impact on small mammals open, forest Tasmania, Australia context other factors hypothesized affect mammal densities survival, namely density native carnivore, co-occurring mammals, rainfall. Change was most important determinant survival. calculated that, average, 50% reduction could result 25% 10% increases swamp rat Rattus lutreolus long-tailed mouse Pseudomys higginsi, respectively. Low-level culling that we conducted two our four study sites experimentally alter revealed survival highest when were stable. conclude exert downward pressure populations indigenous temperate systems. However, alleviating this prey by population is difficult current methods for reducing cool ineffective, potentially even counterproductive. suggest using an adaptive approach regularly robustly monitors how respond interventions intended conserve vulnerable species.