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10 September 1998 |
Ref 98/215 |
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Foxes and cats can be a deadly combination against native wildlife and farm animals (when they're not having a blue.)
Recent research results show that under natural conditions, foxes and cats share food and habitat, avoiding direct contact with one another, except for occasional fights.
If the foxes are removed, the cats change their diet and how they use the habitat.
"There's more to fox control than just baits and bullets," says Robyn Molsher, a PhD student with the Vertebrate Biocontrol Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). "Besides looking at how a certain pest species can be removed, we need to ask what happens to the ecosystem once that animal has been removed."
Large-scale poisoning programs such as the Western Shield, carried out by the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management, appear to be successful in reducing fox numbers and increasing the survival of some endangered native animals.
However Ms Molsher warns that fox control programs must be sustained, cost-effective, and safe.
"Many factors are involved and one of these is the emerging threat of the feral cat," says Ms Molsher. "In the absence of foxes, will cat numbers increase and subsequently take an even heavier toll on native wildlife?"
Ms Molsher has been conducting field experiments to investigate interactions between feral cats and foxes.
The research involved long-term trapping, radio-tracking, diet analysis and video observations. It also compared cat populations in areas with and without fox removal.
"With any long term fox management campaign, it's important to be aware that compensatory behaviour by cats may exist and that this may have a profound effect on the survival of native fauna," Ms Molsher says.
"It may well be necessary devise ways of controlling foxes and cats together."
Rabbits, cats and foxes have caused enormous environmental and economic damage to Australia contributing to the extinction of many mammals. Today 57 mammals are classified as endangered, and 54 others are under threat.
"The introduction of foxes simply to continue the sport of riding to hounds was one of the worst ecological crimes committed in Australia last century", says Ms Molsher.
The aim of the Vertebrate Biocontrol CRC is to contribute to the conservation of Australia's unique fauna by limiting the growth of vertebrate pest populations through fertility control.
The CRC is a partnership between CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology,
the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management
(CALM), Agriculture Western Australia and the Australian National
University. One aspect of the CRC is looking at the future of
fox management in Australia and investigating the possible implications
and consequences of controlling one of Australia's most threatening
predators.
More information from:
- Robyn Molsher
phone: (02) 6242 1510
email: robyn.molsher@dwe.csiro.au - Monica van Wensveen, Communication Officer
phone: (02) 6242 1651
email: monicavw@dwe.csiro.au - Andrew Greig, Communication Manager VB CRC
phone: (02) 6242 1768, Mobile 0418 204 989
email: andrew.greig@dwe.csiro.au
(Australia's largest scientific organisation)
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