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Animals
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Management and Monitoring of Feral Cats
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Management and Monitoring of Feral Cats

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 10652

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David Algar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Locked Bag 104, Bentley Delivery Centre 6983, Australia
Interests: feral cat; island eradications, control; removal and monitoring techniques; fauna conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is extensive evidence that cats (Felis catus) world-wide have had deleterious impacts on native species populations. Impacts of owned domestic cats and urban strays are widely reported but this issue intends to focus on feral cats defined as “cats that live and reproduce in the wild (e.g. forests, woodlands, grasslands, deserts) and survive by hunting or scavenging; none of their needs are satisfied intentionally by humans”. These feral cats are known to have caused or contributed to species’ population declines and extinctions. Today, the control of feral cats is recognised as a global fauna conservation issue.

Knowledge and understanding of techniques available for feral cat control and population monitoring is critical to their effective, cost-efficient and humane management. The aim of this Special Issue is to examine the latest research into feral cat management and monitoring techniques both for eradication on islands and for control at the landscape-scale on mainland areas. Research into management and monitoring tools used with other felid species is invited, where application to improving the management of feral cats can be demonstrated.

Dr. David Algar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Felis catus
  • monitoring techniques
  • fauna conservation
  • feral cat control

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3451 KiB  
Article
Two Methods of Monitoring Cats at a Landscape-Scale
by Cheryl A. Lohr, Kristen Nilsson, Ashleigh Johnson, Neil Hamilton, Mike Onus and Dave Algar
Animals 2021, 11(12), 3562; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11123562 - 15 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2371
Abstract
Feral cats are difficult to manage and harder to monitor. We analysed the cost and the efficacy of monitoring the pre- and post-bait abundance of feral cats via camera-traps or track counts using four years of data from the Matuwa Indigenous Protected Area. [...] Read more.
Feral cats are difficult to manage and harder to monitor. We analysed the cost and the efficacy of monitoring the pre- and post-bait abundance of feral cats via camera-traps or track counts using four years of data from the Matuwa Indigenous Protected Area. Additionally, we report on the recovery of the feral cat population and the efficacy of subsequent Eradicat® aerial baiting programs following 12 months of intensive feral cat control in 2019. Significantly fewer cats were captured in 2020 (n = 8) compared to 2019 (n = 126). Pre-baiting surveys for 2020 and 2021 suggested that the population of feral cats on Matuwa was very low, at 5.5 and 4.4 cats/100 km, respectively, which is well below our target threshold of 10 cats/100 km. Post-baiting surveys then recorded 3.6 and 3.0 cats/100 km, respectively, which still equates to a 35% and 32% reduction in cat activity. Track counts recorded significantly more feral cats than camera traps and were cheaper to implement. We recommend that at least two methods of monitoring cats be implemented to prevent erroneous conclusions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Monitoring of Feral Cats)
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16 pages, 1317 KiB  
Article
Long-Distance Movements of Feral Cats in Semi-Arid South Australia and Implications for Conservation Management
by Jeroen Jansen, Hugh McGregor, Geoff Axford, Abbey T. Dean, Sebastien Comte, Chris N. Johnson, Katherine E. Moseby, Robert Brandle, David E. Peacock and Menna E. Jones
Animals 2021, 11(11), 3125; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113125 - 31 Oct 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 7331
Abstract
Movements that extend beyond the usual space use of an animal have been documented in a range of species and are particularly prevalent in arid areas. We present long-distance movement data on five feral cats (Felis catus) GPS/VHF-collared during two different [...] Read more.
Movements that extend beyond the usual space use of an animal have been documented in a range of species and are particularly prevalent in arid areas. We present long-distance movement data on five feral cats (Felis catus) GPS/VHF-collared during two different research projects in arid and semi-arid Australia. We compare these movements with data from other feral cat studies. Over a study period of three months in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, 4 out of 19 collared cats moved to sites that were 31, 41, 53 and 86 km away. Three of the cats were males, one female; their weight was between 2.1 and 4.1 kg. Two of the cats returned to the area of capture after three and six weeks. During the other study at Arid Recovery, one collared male cat (2.5 kg) was relocated after two years at a distance of 369 km from the area of collar deployment to the relocation area. The movements occurred following three years of record low rainfall. Our results build on the knowledge base of long-distance movements of feral cats reported at arid study sites and support the assertion that landscape-scale cat control programs in arid and semi-arid areas need to be of a sufficiently large scale to avoid rapid reinvasion and to effectively reduce cat density. Locally, cat control strategies need to be adjusted to improve coverage of areas highly used by cats to increase the efficiency of control operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management and Monitoring of Feral Cats)
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