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Top-down control of species distributions: Feral cats driving the regional extinction of a threatened rodent in northern Australia
journal contribution
posted on 2017-03-01, 00:00 authored by H F Davies, M A Mccarthy, R S C Firth, J C Z Woinarski, G R Gillespie, A N Andersen, Hayley Geyle, Emily NicholsonEmily Nicholson, B P MurphyTo investigate whether feral cats influence the distribution of Australia's largest remnant population of the threatened brush-tailed rabbit-rat Conilurus penicillatus and examine whether they influenced the extinction probability of C. penicillatus over a 15-year period (2000-2015). Location: Melville Island, northern Australia. Methods: In 2015, small mammal surveys were conducted at 88 sites across Melville Island, 86 of which had previously been surveyed in 2000-2002. We used single-season occupancy models to investigate correlates of the current distribution of C. penicillatus and dynamic occupancy models to investigate correlates of C. penicillatus local extinction. Results: Our results show that C. penicillatus, which once occurred more widely across the island, is now restricted to parts of the island where feral cats are rarely detected and shrub density is high. Our results suggest that feral cats are driving C. penicillatus towards extinction on Melville Island, and hence have likely been a significant driver in the decline of this species in northern Australia more broadly. The impact of feral cats appears to be mitigated by vegetation structure. Main conclusions: The ongoing development and implementation of methods to effectively reduce feral cat densities, coupled with the management of landscape processes to maintain shrub density, through fire management and the removal of large exotic herbivores, will contribute substantially to conserving this threatened species. This study demonstrates that the distribution of species can be strongly influenced by top-down factors such as predation, thereby highlighting the importance of including biotic interactions when investigating the distribution of predation-susceptible species.
History
Journal
Diversity and distributionsVolume
23Issue
3Pagination
272 - 283Publisher
WileyLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1366-9516eISSN
1472-4642Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2016, WileyUsage metrics
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No categories selectedKeywords
AustraliaConilurus penicillatusdistributionextinctionferal cats,predation.Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiodiversity ConservationEcologyBiodiversity & ConservationEnvironmental Sciences & Ecologyferal catspredationTAILED RABBIT-RATKAKADU NATIONAL-PARKCONILURUS-PENICILLATUSSMALL MAMMALSMONSOONAL TROPICSDOMINATED SAVANNAECOLOGICAL THEORYSITE-OCCUPANCYFIREMODELS
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