Feral Cats Are Better Killers in Open Habitats, Revealed by Animal-Borne Video

One of the key gaps in understanding the impacts of predation by small mammalian predators on prey is how habitat structure affects the hunting success of small predators, such as feral cats. These effects are poorly understood due to the difficulty of observing actual hunting behaviours. We attache...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-08, Vol.10 (8), p.e0133915-e0133915
Main Authors: McGregor, Hugh, Legge, Sarah, Jones, Menna E, Johnson, Christopher N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animals
Australia
Cameras
Cats
Cats - physiology
Ecosystem
Feral populations
Grasses
Habitats
Herbivores
Hunting
Microenvironments
Microhabitats
Predation
Predators
Predatory Behavior
Prey
Rocks
Tropical Climate
Vegetation
Vegetation cover
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:One of the key gaps in understanding the impacts of predation by small mammalian predators on prey is how habitat structure affects the hunting success of small predators, such as feral cats. These effects are poorly understood due to the difficulty of observing actual hunting behaviours. We attached collar-mounted video cameras to feral cats living in a tropical savanna environment in northern Australia, and measured variation in hunting success among different microhabitats (open areas, dense grass and complex rocks). From 89 hours of footage, we recorded 101 hunting events, of which 32 were successful. Of these kills, 28% were not eaten. Hunting success was highly dependent on microhabitat structure surrounding prey, increasing from 17% in habitats with dense grass or complex rocks to 70% in open areas. This research shows that habitat structure has a profound influence on the impacts of small predators on their prey. This has broad implications for management of vegetation and disturbance processes (like fire and grazing) in areas where feral cats threaten native fauna. Maintaining complex vegetation cover can reduce predation rates of small prey species from feral cat predation.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133915