Abstract
Environmental damage caused by the intensification of agriculture may be compensated by implementing conservation projects directed towards reducing threatening processes and conserving threatened native species. In Australia, feral cats (Felis catus) have been a ubiquitous threatening process to Australian fauna since European colonisation. On Shamrock Station, in the north-west of Western Australia, the Argyle Cattle Company has proposed intensifying agriculture through the installation of irrigation pivots. There is concern that irrigating land and storing agricultural produce may indirectly increase the abundance of feral cats and European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on the property, which in turn may negatively impact threatened bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) that also inhabit the property. Feral cat control is required under the approved management plan for this project to mitigate this potential impact. Our baseline study revealed a high density of feral cats on Shamrock Station (0.87 cats km−2) and dietary data that suggest the current native mammal assemblage on Shamrock Station is depauperate. Given the high density of feral cats in this area, the effective control of this introduced predator is likely to confer benefits to the bilby and other native species susceptible to cat predation. We recommend ongoing monitoring of both native species and feral cats to determine if there is a benefit in implementing feral cat control around areas of intensive agriculture and associated cattle production.
Highlights
The Matuwa Indigenous Protected Area is an ex-pastoral lease in central Western Australia that has been managed for conservation for 20 years (2440 km2 ; 7,097,616 N, 344,101 E; Figure 1)
Two non-target animals were captured in leg-hold traps: one dingo/wild dog hybrid (Canis familiaris), which was euthanised and the remains of one crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes), which was presumably predated by a feral cat while trapped
Discussion studies difficult, the number of feral cats captured per trap-night on Shamrock Station was higher than all similar and published studies conducted in Western Australia [27,37]
Summary
Compared to the establishment of Shamrock Station (1986), or its predecessor, La Grange Bay Downs Station (1903) [12], feral cats are a pre-existing and ubiquitous threatening process to Australian fauna in the region [13] They have a nearglobal distribution, occurring wherever humans have colonised [14], with versatile habitat use [15] due to their ability to go without free drinking water [16] and a varied diet [17,18]. Feral cats are cryptic and elusive species that typically cannot be captured more than once unless tracking dogs, dart guns and extreme effort are implemented [27], and frequently cannot be reliably detected [28] or identified as individuals by remote survey techniques [29] Under these conditions, abundance estimation via capture-recapture analysis or mark-resight analysis fails.
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