Baiting foxes can make feral cats even more ‘brazen’, study of 1.5 million forest photos shows

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 12:51:07 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/baiting-foxes-can-make-feral-cats-even-more-brazen-study-of-1-5-million-forest-photos-shows-223352>

"Foxes and cats kill about 2.6 billion mammals, birds and reptiles across
Australia, every year. To save native species from extinction, we need to
protect them from these introduced predators. But land managers tend to focus
on foxes, which are easier to control. Unfortunately this may have unintended
consequences.

We wanted to find out how feral cats respond to fox control. In one of the
biggest studies on this issue to date, we worked with land managers to set up
3,667 survey cameras in a series of controlled experiments. We studied the
effects on cat behaviour and population density.

Our research shows feral cats are more abundant and more brazen after foxes are
suppressed.

In some regions, cats need to be managed alongside foxes to protect native
wildlife."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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