Legge, S.; Murphy, BP
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Charles Darwin University Enumerating a continental-scale threat How many feral cats are in Australia? Legge, S.; Murphy, B. P.; McGregor, Hugh; Woinarski, John; Augusteyn, J.; Ballard, Guy; Baseler, M.; Buckmaster, T.; Dickman, Chris R.; Doherty, Tom; Edwards, Glenn P; Eyre, T.; Fancourt, B. A.; Ferguson, D.; Forsyth, D. M.; Geary, W. L.; Gentle, M.; Gillespie, G; Greenwood, L.; Hohnen, Rosemary; Hume, S.; Johnson, Christopher N.; Maxwell, M.; McDonald, P. J.; Morris, K; Moseby, Katherine; Newsome, Thomas; Nimmo, Dale; Paltridge, R.; Ramsey, David; Read, John; Rendall, A.; Rich, M.; Ritchie, Euan; Rowland, J.; Short, J; Stokeld, D.; Sutherland, D. R.; Wayne, A. F.; Woodford, L.; Zewe, F. Published in: Biological Conservation DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032 Published: 01/02/2017 Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Legge, S., Murphy, B. P., McGregor, H., Woinarski, J., Augusteyn, J., Ballard, G., Baseler, M., Buckmaster, T., Dickman, C. R., Doherty, T., Edwards, G. P., Eyre, T., Fancourt, B. A., Ferguson, D., Forsyth, D. M., Geary, W. L., Gentle, M., Gillespie, G., Greenwood, L., ... Zewe, F. (2017). Enumerating a continental-scale threat: How many feral cats are in Australia? Biological Conservation, 206, 293-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal 1 Appendix A. Supplementary data 2 3 Cat-free areas: predator exclosures on the mainland 4 5 Table A1. List of fenced enclosures on the Australian mainland that are constructed to maintain wild, 6 self-sustaining populations of threatened mammals. The enclosures are divided into those that are 7 currently cat and fox free, and those that are currently compromised by the presence of feral cats 8 and/or foxes. 9 Mainland feral predator-free Area Managed by State areas (km2) Scotia Sanctuary Australian Wildlife Conservancy NSW 78.4 Mt Gibson Sanctuary Australian Wildlife Conservancy WA 78.3 Arid Recovery Arid Recovery SA 60.0 Lorna Glen WA Department of Parks and Wildlife WA 11.0 Yookamurra Sanctuary Australian Wildlife Conservancy SA 10.9 Wadderin Sanctuary Community group, Shire of Narembeen WA 4.3 Mount Rothwell Private NGO VIC 4.2 Perup Sanctuary WA Department of Parks and Wildlife WA 4.2 Whiteman Park WA Government (Dept. of Planning) WA 4.2 Mulligan's Flat Sanctuary ACT Government ACT 4.0 Woodlands Historic Park Parks Victoria VIC 4.0 Waychinicup National Park WA Department of Parks and Wildlife WA 3.8 Karakamia Sanctuary Australian Wildlife Conservancy WA 2.5 McKinlay Shire Council and Qld Department of Julia Creek Aerodome QLD 2.5 Environment and Heritage Protection Hamilton Community Parkland Southern Grampians Shire Council VIC 1.0 Nangeen Hill Nature Reserve WA Department of Parks and Wildlife WA 0.5 Sub-total (km2) 273.8 Compromised fenced areas Currawinya National Park Qld Dept, of National Parks, Sport and Racing QLD 25.0 Venus Bay Conservation Park SA Dept. Environment, Water & Natural Resources SA 14.0 Heirisson Prong Useless Loop Community Biosphere Project Group WA 12.0 Sub-total (km2) 51.0 10 11 12 1 13 Cat-free areas: the presence and absence of feral cats on Australian islands 14 15 Cats are known, or presumed, to be absent from many Australian islands. We estimated the number and 16 total area of such cat-free islands. Complementarily, we also attempted to estimate the number and 17 total area of islands on which feral cats occur. The most comprehensive database of Australian islands 18 (excluding those associated with the Australian Antarctic Territory) is maintained by Geoscience 19 Australia: this comprises 5 447 islands larger than 1 ha, with a total area of 32 969 km2 (also summarised 20 in Burbidge et al., 2017). In some specified considerations here we add the main island of Tasmania (64 21 519 km2: i.e. for a total Australian island area of 97 488 km2) to this tally. We exclude islands smaller 22 than 1 ha from consideration, given that such small islands are unlikely to maintain viable feral cat 23 populations. 24 25 Most Australian islands have not been the subject of biological survey, so the presence or absence of 26 feral cats is unknown for many islands. However, lack of sampling is mainly a characteristic of smaller 27 islands. Records of feral cats on islands were derived principally from (i) a database of all (native and 28 introduced) mammal records on islands (Abbott and Burbidge, 1995), (ii) results from more recent fauna 29 surveys of some island groups (e.g. Gibson and McKenzie, 2012; Woinarski et al., 1999; Woinarski et al., 30 2011); (iii) some specific surveys for cat presence or absence from some islands (Algar et al., 2003; 31 Hilmer et al., 2009); and (iv) a database of the presence of introduced species on Australian islands 32 compiled in 2010 by the then Australian Commonwealth environment agency (‘DEWHA’) from collations 33 by state/territory environment agencies (Department of the Environment, 2016). 34 35 All of the four sources used have some sampling biases. Records of feral cat presence in these 36 databases are generally reliable. The main exception is for islands from which feral cats have been 37 reported but subsequently eradicated. Here, we use information on published accounts of eradication of 38 feral cats on islands (Algar et al., 2010; Algar et al., 2002; Campbell et al., 2011; Department of the 39 Environment, 2015) and unpublished sources to denote that feral cats are now absent from these 40 islands. The status of islands with no reported cat records in these databases is more ambiguous: these 41 islands may simply not have been sampled, or not sampled adequately enough to detect feral cats. Most 42 of the islands in this category are very small, and feral cats were considered likely to be absent from 43 these islands. If cats are present on some of these islands, their cumulative total would make negligible 44 difference to the overall population estimate for feral cats. 45 46 Including Tasmania, feral cats are known to be present on 98 Australian islands (1.8% of the total 47 number of Australian islands), with a total area of 90 042 km2 (92.4% of the total area of Australian 48 islands) (Table A1). If Tasmania is excluded from this island set, the area of islands on which cats are 49 present is 25 523 km2 (77.4% of the area of all Australian islands, excluding Tasmania). The number of 50 islands from which cats are known to be absent is 592 (10.9% of the island tally) with a total area of 4 51 911 km2 (5.0% of the total island area, including Tasmania, or 14.9% of the total area of islands excluding 52 Tasmania) (Table A3). If the total number and area of islands on which feral cats occur is subtracted 53 from the total number and area of all Australian islands, the number of islands > 1 ha on which cats are 54 known to be absent or likely to be absent increases to 5 350 (98.2% of islands), with a total area of 7 446 2 55 km2 (7.6% of the total island area, or 22.6% if Tasmania is excluded.) Because of uncertainty due to lack 56 of sampling, the actual total area of islands without feral cats is likely to be between these two 57 estimates of 4 911 km2 and 7 446km2 which represents 0.06 to 0.1% of the total Australian land area 58 (7.693 million km2, including all islands). 59 60 Feral cats are much more likely to be present on larger islands (Table A1), but there is some sampling 61 bias with this assessment; larger islands more likely to have been sampled and included in the source 62 databases. Only 10 Australian islands larger than 100 km2 (and none larger than 1 000 km2) are likely or 63 assumed to be without feral cats. Australia’s largest cat-free island is the sub-Antarctic Heard Island (at 64 375 km2). 65 66 67 Table A2. The size distribution of Australian islands, and occurrence of feral cats across island size 68 ranges. Islands smaller than 1 ha are not included. 69 Island size range No. of No. of islands No. of islands % islands with islands known to have with evidence feral cats feral cats indicating cats are absent >10 000 km2 1 1 0 100 1000 to 10 000 km2 8 8 0 100 100 to 1 000 km2 31 21 8 67.7 10 to 100 km2 135 24 78 17.7 1 to 10 km2 545 29 186 5.3 0.1 to 1 km2 1 560 14 201 0.9 0.01 to 0.1 km2 3 168 1 119 <0.001 Total 5448 98 592 1.80 Total land area (km2) 97488 90042 4911 Land area excluding 32969 25523 4911 Tasmania (km2) 3 70 Table A3. Australian islands with feral cats present. Islands are arranged in order of decreasing size. 71 ‘DEWHA island #’ is as given in (Department of the Environment, 2016).