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Landscape management of fire and grazing regimes alters the fine-scale habitat utilisation by feral cats
Citation
McGregor, HW and Legge, S and Jones, ME and Johnson, CN, Landscape management of fire and grazing regimes alters the fine-scale habitat utilisation by feral cats, PLoS One, 9, (10) Article e109097. ISSN 1932-6203 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109097
Abstract
Intensification of fires and grazing by large herbivores has caused population declines in small vertebrates in many
ecosystems worldwide. Impacts are rarely direct, and usually appear driven via indirect pathways, such as changes to
predator-prey dynamics. Fire events and grazing may improve habitat and/or hunting success for the predators of small
mammals, however, such impacts have not been documented. To test for such an interaction, we investigated fine-scale
habitat selection by feral cats in relation to fire, grazing and small-mammal abundance. Our study was conducted in northwestern
Australia, where small mammal populations are sensitive to changes in fire and grazing management. We deployed
GPS collars on 32 cats in landscapes with contrasting fire and grazing treatments. Fine-scale habitat selection was
determined using discrete choice modelling of cat movements. We found that cats selected areas with open grass cover,
including heavily-grazed areas. They strongly selected for areas recently burnt by intense fires, but only in habitats that
typically support high abundance of small mammals. Intense fires and grazing by introduced herbivores created conditions
that are favoured by cats, probably because their hunting success is improved. This mechanism could explain why, in
northern Australia, impacts of feral cats on small mammals might have increased. Our results suggest the impact of feral
cats could be reduced in most ecosystems by maximising grass cover, minimising the incidence of intense fires, and
reducing grazing by large herbivores.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | feral cat, fire ecology, threatened species, mammal declines |
| Research Division: | Environmental Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecological applications |
| Research Field: | Biosecurity science and invasive species ecology |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
| Objective Field: | Terrestrial biodiversity |
| UTAS Author: | McGregor, HW (Dr Hugh McGregor) |
| UTAS Author: | Jones, ME (Professor Menna Jones) |
| UTAS Author: | Johnson, CN (Professor Christopher Johnson) |
| ID Code: | 97207 |
| Year Published: | 2014 |
| Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (LP100100033) |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 139 |
| Deposited By: | Zoology |
| Deposited On: | 2014-12-05 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-10-31 |
| Downloads: | 282 View Download Statistics |
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