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Fact Sheet-The Impact of Cats in Australia

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Fact Sheet-The Impact of Cats in Australia Science for Saving Species Research findings factsheet Project 1.1.2 The impact of cats in Australia Cat origins Quick Facts National cat population: Domestic cats are descended from cats, relating to their lifestyle, or the the African wildcat Felis lybica. They extent to which they are socialised, • Pet cats – 3.8 million pet cats were domesticated in Egypt and the owned and cared for. However, the • Feral cats in urban areas – 0.7 million Middle East around 4000 years ago, simplest categorisation is ‘pet cat’ • Feral cats in the bush – 1.4 million and have since been extensively for cats that live in a household in dry conditions, and 5.6 after moved around the world by people. and are owned and cared for by widespread rain They now occur on all continents people and ‘feral cat’ for everything except Antarctica, and on many else. Feral cats can live in our Cat occurrence in Australia: of the world’s islands. towns and cities as well as in • 99.9% of total land area remote areas of the Australian The domestic cat’s scientific name • 92% of total island area bush. Feral cats and pet cats are is Felis catus. There have been • Average density of feral cats in exactly the same species. many categorisations for domestic the bush, on the mainland, is 1 cat per 3–4 km2 but cats reach Photo: Joanne Heathcote appreciably higher densities in arid areas and on small islands • Densities (of feral cats and pet cats) are much higher in urban areas In Australia every day cats kill: • Mammals – 3.2 million (mostly native species in the bush; mostly introduced species in towns) • Birds – 1.2 million (almost all native species) • Reptiles – 1.9 million (almost all native species) • Frogs – 0.25 million (all native species) • Invertebrates – 3 million Annual toll of cats • A feral cat in the bush – 791 mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs/year and 371 invertebrates/year • A feral cat in urban area – 449 mammals, reptiles and birds/year • A pet cat that can roam and hunt – 186 mammals, reptiles and birds/year Cats in Australia Domestic cats were introduced to purposefully designed and established but it could be as high as 2.5 million. Australia with the First Fleet in 1788, fenced areas on the mainland. Towns and cities support a high with many subsequent introductions density of feral cats, including cat around the mainland and to many Islands ‘colonies’ at sites such as rubbish Australian islands. Cats spread rapidly Cats never made it to some Australian tips and skips, or intensive farms across Australia: historical records islands, and cat populations that that offer abundant food sources. and genetic analyses show that managed to establish on 25 islands Based on extrapolation and modelling cats colonised the entire continent were later eradicated. Over 590 from studies which have estimated (7.7 million km2) within 70 years. islands (covering 5,539 km2) are cat densities at about 100 locations known to be cat-free; the real number Cats now occur in all habitats, spaced across Australia, the feral cat is probably much higher but most from alpine areas in south-eastern population in the bush is estimated of these potentially cat-free islands Australia to the arid deserts of central at 2.1 million, but fluctuates between are small, and would not add Australia. They cover more of Australia 1.4 million in dry-average years to much in terms of total island area. and occupy more habitats than all 5.6 million after widespread and other introduced mammals, such as Fenced exclosures extensive rainfall events across arid foxes and rabbits. Cats also occur on Australia. These rainfall events cause Over recent decades, cats have nearly 100 Australian islands, including rapid increases in prey populations also been eliminated from 28 fenced most of the largest islands. They are (including native rodents), and the exclosures (covering 594 km2) on the present on over 92% of Australia’s cat population increases quickly in Australian mainland, established for combined island area. response to the resource boom. The the protection of predator-susceptible average density of feral cats in the bush We estimate that the cat-free area threatened mammal species. across the mainland is 0.27 cats/km2, in Australia comprises only around with that average fluctuating between 8000 km2 – about 0.1% of the How many cats are there 0.2 and 0.7 cats/km2 depending on Australian land mass. These cat- in Australia? patterns of widespread rainfall. free areas are (small) havens for There are 3.8 million pet cats in the many threatened species for The density of feral cats is higher on Australia. which cats (and foxes) are the main islands, especially smaller islands, which cause of decline and endangerment. The feral cat population in our towns often have abundant food resources These havens are either islands or and cities is estimated at 0.7 million, for cats, including seabird colonies. The density of feral cats in the bush fluctuates depending on weather conditions, increasing strongly after widespread rain across inland Australia. Credit: Legge, et al 2017. Enumerating a continental-scale threat: how many feral cats are in Australia? Biological Conservation 206, 293–303. Reducing populations of introduced prey can also reduce cat populations. What do cats eat? Cats are carnivores, only eating meat, Some individual cats specialise on and mostly of animals they have killed particular prey species. Worldwide, themselves. They take a very wide and in Australia, mammals make up range of prey, including invertebrates, the bulk of cats’ prey, but this varies frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals. widely between sites and is influenced Cats eat a range of prey from small by the availability of prey. beetles to mammals almost as large Virtually all cats, even well-fed pet as themselves (up to about 4 kg which cats, will hunt and kill wildlife if is the size of small wallabies). given the opportunity. Eddy Van 3000 from Belgiquistan CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons Impact of cats Domestic cats are considered one of imperilment of at least 360 threatened bandicoots, the lesser bilby, the the most damaging invasive species reptile, bird and mammal species Nullarbor dwarf bettong, the desert worldwide, causing impacts from worldwide, about half of which are rat-kangaroo and the broad-faced predation, disease transmission, species restricted to islands. potaroo; and native rodents including hybridisation (with native wildcats, in at least four species of hopping-mice, In Australia, at least 34 mammal Europe and Africa), and competition. two species of rabbit-rat, and the species have become extinct since lesser stick-nest rat. Globally, cats are considered to European settlement – a rate of have contributed to the extinction mammal extinctions far greater than Cats have also been primary agents in of at least two reptile, 40 bird and anywhere else in the world. Cats have the extinction of some Australian birds 21 mammal species – over one been primary contributors to over that were restricted to islands, such quarter (26%) of the total extinctions two-thirds of these extinctions. as the Macquarie Island parakeet and of these groups since the year 1600. Examples include native marsupials Macquarie Island buff-banded rail. Currently, cats are contributing to the like two species of pig-footed Line drawings T. Maggiocomo: long-tailed hopping-mouse, crescent nailtail wallaby, desert bandicoot. ABOVE: Pig-footed bandicoot, white-footed rabbit-rat. Credit: By John Gould - The Mammals of Australia, The five animals above, left and right, are examples of extinct mammals Public Domain for which cat predation was a major contributor. Evidence of the impact of cats There is extensive evidence of Many studies of the biology of numbers (and types) of animals killed the impact of cats on Australian Australian wildlife species have per cat; and (iii) multiplying this by native species. documented high rates of the (spatially variable) number of feral mortality from cats. cats in Australia. From these analyses, Many historical mammal extinctions we can determine the numbers corresponded to the spatial and Many studies of the diet of cats of different types of animals killed temporal spread of cats across have shown that they take large by cats in different parts of Australia, the continent. numbers of many wildlife species, and then sum these to derive including highly threatened birds, Many native species (for example, national tallies. mammals and reptiles. the greater stick-nest rat and banded This approach relies on some hare-wallaby) now persist only in The historic and ongoing impacts assumptions: for example, that the areas that have remained cat-free of cats on Australian wildlife are far fraction of carrion (i.e. pre-killed (such as some islands, and more more severe than for wildlife on any animals) in the cat diet is small (which recently, fenced exclosures), and are other continent. This is probably is reasonable, as cats much prefer unable to persist if cats are present. because Australian animals have to eat freshly-killed prey); and also evolved without cat-like predators, There are also examples where that the numbers of animals killed many Australian animals have low species disappeared from islands by feral cats but not eaten is also rates of reproduction so their after cats were introduced, but after small. Information on the diets of pet viability is readily compromised the cats were eradicated, the same cats, and feral cats living in towns, is by an efficient predator (especially native mammal species have been patchier than for feral cats in the bush. one with much higher reproductive successfully reintroduced to the rates), and because cats are so islands (such as the western barred Findings pervasive and such adaptable bandicoot and Shark Bay mouse Overall, feral cats in Australia eat hunters.
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