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A Comparison of Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) and Feral Cat (Felis Catus) Diets in the South West Region of Western Australia

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A Comparison of Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) and Feral Cat (Felis Catus) Diets in the South West Region of Western Australia A comparison of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus) diets in the south west region of Western Australia Submitted by Heather Crawford BSc (Zoology) This thesis is presented as part of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Science Conservation and Wildlife Biology with Honours at Murdoch University. Word Count: 27, 880 School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology H1150 Honours Thesis in Conservation and Wildlife Biology November, 2010 Supervisors: Dr Patricia Fleming: School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Associate Professor Mike Calver: School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Dr Peter Adams: School of Veterinary and Biomedical Science Declaration I, Heather Crawford, declare that this Honours thesis is my own account of my research into the diets of red foxes and feral cats in south west western Australia. No part of my thesis has been previously submitted for a degree at any tertiary educational institution. Signed Heather Crawford Date: i Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Trish Fleming, Associate Professor Mike Calver and Dr Peter Adams. Thank you for developing a project that pushed me to the limit and challenged me to dig deep and find the energy and strength to cut up hundreds of foxes and work harder, mentally, then I have ever worked before. Thank you Shannon, Trish and Peter for organising the collection and processing of foxes across the south west region, and for your help preparing and examining hundreds of hair samples! Thank you Mike, for all of your invaluable advice and patience with me throughout the year. I would also like to thank Shannon Dundas, without whom there would be no project on fox diets in the south west (sorry I did not find any quokka remains in the fox stomachs!). My sincere thanks to all of the people who helped me collect and process data throughout my project, this thesis would not have been possible without your help. Thank you to the volunteers who helped us to chop up foxes which is not a task for the faint hearted! Thank you to all of the farmers and hunters who provided us with carcasses and an insight into fox impacts in the south west. To the organisers of the Red Card for Red Fox programme, thank you for working with ‘the fox team’ this year and for allowing us to turn your fields and barns into a blood bath! A special thank you goes to Eddie Juras for suppling foxes caught in Williams, as well as giving me the opportunity to learn more about fox behaviour by introducing me to lovely little Eric. Thank you also to Paul de Tores, for suppling fox and cat carcasses from Leschenault Peninsula and Dwellingup. To Claire Stevenson and Brad Maryan from the Western Australian Museum, and Mike Craig from Murdoch University, without your expertise it would have taken me months to classify the hundreds of bird, reptile and amphibian samples, so thank you!! A very special thank you must go to my wonderful family. Thank you dad, for taking photographs of my gory lab work and all of your encouragement. Thank you mom, for all of your emotional support ii and love throughout the year. Thank you Brian for your artistic input, it has added another dimension to my thesis. Thank you Ross for all of your encouragement. Thank you to my pets (new and old), for keeping me sane this year. And finally, I would like to thank Narelle Dybing and Jesse Forbes Harper who worked tirelessly by my side throughout the year, always finding an amusing side to slicing and dicing so many extremely pungent animals. iii Abstract There is a paucity of data on the diet of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cats (Felis catus) in the south west region of Western Australia. Information is needed to determine the impact of these introduced predators on native wildlife, and to establish whether competitive and predatory interactions are likely to exist between foxes and cats. Therefore the diets of both species were quantified and compared by examining the stomach contents of 542 foxes and 56 cats collected from across the south west region in association with the Red Card for the Red Fox community feral control program. This study provides the first insight into the summer dietary preferences of the red fox and feral cat in south west Western Australia. This study provided a ‘snapshot’ of dietary intake, revealing that there was little overlap in the diets of red foxes and feral cats (26%), with the proportions of different prey categories consumed differing significantly between the predators (ANOSIM- R=0.1352, p<0.0001). Overall, foxes consumed mostly domestic sheep as carrion or lamb (64%, using Index of Relative Importance values for this food category), as well as a large amount of fruit, grains and invertebrates. With numerous bird species as their staple prey (32%, by IRI), feral cats are actively hunting a greater proportion of native vertebrate species (43%, by IRI), than foxes (6%, by IRI). Surprisingly, cats deliberately consumed a large amount of plant material (18%, by IRI), which may suggest that this atypical food source plays a role in sustaining feral cats during summer. From analysis of fox and cat diets it can be surmised that in the south west, interspecific competition between the predators may not be strong because of their reliance on different food categories. However, removal experiments and investigation of spatial interactions between the two species are iv required to confirm that resource partitioning and not antagonistic interactions are causing dietary differences (e.g. interference competition). Findings from the current study into the diets of red foxes and feral cats have implications for both farmers and conservationists in the south west. If carrion is responsible for sustaining large fox populations (hyperpredation) during a period of reduced resources, removal of carrion may reduce fox population sizes substantially. If, however, active control of foxes then leads to mesopredator release, feral cats may have a greater impact on the south west’s remaining native species, especially if cats have increased access to carrion. v Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1 General Introduction and Thesis Overview .................................................................... 1 General Introduction........................................................................................................................... 1 Thesis Overview .................................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 3 History of Feral Predator Introductions in Australia ........................................................................... 3 The Red Fox ..................................................................................................................................... 6 The Feral Cat ................................................................................................................................... 8 Diet of the Red Fox and Feral Cat in Australia .................................................................................. 10 Red Fox .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Feral Cat ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Foxes and Cats .............................................................................................................................. 22 Chapter 3 General Methods ....................................................................................................... 24 Techniques for Quantifying Diets ..................................................................................................... 24 Study Sites ......................................................................................................................................... 25 Swan Coastal Plain Bioregion ........................................................................................................ 28 Jarrah Forest Bioregion ................................................................................................................. 28 Avon Wheatbelt Bioregion ............................................................................................................ 29 Sample Collection ............................................................................................................................. 30 Dissections .................................................................................................................................... 32 Stomach Processing .......................................................................................................................... 35 Identification of Stomach Contents .............................................................................................. 36 Food Categories ...........................................................................................................................
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