Abstract
Invasive feral cats threaten biodiversity at a global scale. Mitigating feral cat impacts and reducing their populations has therefore become a global conservation priority, especially on islands housing high endemic biodiversity. The New Caledonian archipelago is a biodiversity hotspot showing outstanding terrestrial species richness and endemism. Feral cats prey upon at least 44 of its native vertebrate species, 20 of which are IUCN Red-listed threatened species. To test the feasibility and efficiency of culling, intensive culling was conducted in a peninsula of New Caledonia (25.6 km²) identified as a priority site for feral cat management. Live-trapping over 38 days on a 10.6 km² area extirpated 36 adult cats, an estimated 44% of the population. However, three months after culling, all indicators derived from camera-trapping (e.g., abundance, minimum number of individuals and densities) suggest a return to pre-culling levels. Compensatory immigration appears to explain this unexpectedly rapid population recovery in a semi-isolated context. Since culling success does not guarantee a long-term effect, complementary methods like fencing and innovative automated traps need to be used, in accordance with predation thresholds identified through modelling, to preserve island biodiversity. Testing general assumptions on cat management, this article contributes important insights into a challenging conservation issue for islands and biodiversity hotspots worldwide.
Highlights
Feral cats are among the most harmful invasive predators for insular native fauna (Bonnaud et al 2011; Medina et al 2011; Bellard et al 2016; Doherty et al 2016)
Recent management actions succeeded in eradicating cats from small and medium-sized islands including fenced enclosures, to date feral cat eradications remain largely unfeasible on the largest islands, when inhabited (Nogales et al 2004; Campbell et al 2011; Oppel et al 2011; DIISE 2020), and even harder to achieve in mainland areas
We report a short but intensive feral cat culling operation conducted at Pindaï peninsula (New Caledonia), which is a priority conservation area for seabirds (Spaggiari et al 2007)
Summary
Feral cats are among the most harmful invasive predators for insular native fauna (Bonnaud et al 2011; Medina et al 2011; Bellard et al 2016; Doherty et al 2016). Population control may entail a continuous removal of individuals (Lazenby et al 2015) This is generally not a sustainable management strategy given the usually limited resources and time available for such conservation programmes (e.g. Doherty and Ritchie 2017; Venning et al 2020). A peninsula, was chosen for its potential to act as a population filter and limit immigration from surrounding populations (like Heirisson Prong in Short et al 2002, and the Tasman Peninsula in Lazenby et al 2015)
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