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Cats may seem harmless, but they actually contributed to multiple extinctions. They were introduced by people and local rodents were never truly prepared for them. However, they are not welcome everywhere. Scientists from the University of Queensland say that conservation areas in Australia free of cats and foxes prevented 13 mammal extinctions.
Feral cats are a big threat to a number of species of smaller animals in Australia. Image credit: shira gal via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Australia is the worst case for extinction of the species in modern times and cats are partly guilty for that. Human activity is driving a lot of species to extinction and part of it is introduction of alien species. Cats are not native in Australia – they were brought in. Some of them then were abandoned, which is why Australia has a significant stray cat population.
These cats are hunting small animals to survive and contribute to their extinction. There are, however, about 80 Australian islands that are naturally cat and fox-free havens. They prevented some of the extinctions. For example, the greater stick-nest rat is gone from the mainland Australia, but still lives in the Franklin Islands off South Australia.
Some of these havens for threatened species are natural – cats were not introduced in every island. But most of them have been created after 1980. Scientists and environmental protection groups removed feral animals from islands or from within large fenced areas on the mainland and moved threatened animals to these places.
Scientists say that now in Australia they have 101 island havens covering 2152 square kilometres and 17 fenced havens covering 346 square kilometres. However, this work is still not completed. Scientists say that 29 threatened species are still in no haven at all. Creation of these protected areas also needs to be improved, making sure that the location is ideal for moving these species.
Scientists say that 12 new havens would be enough to protect every threatened mammal species vulnerable to predation by cats and foxes today.
12 new havens would be great, but 39 would be better, because then scientists could protect at least three populations of every one of these species. Dr Michael Bode, one of the authors of the study, said: “longer term, we really need to find ways of reducing fox and cat impacts across Australia, so we can restore our native mammals to landscapes at bigger scales. Until then, cat and fox-free havens will be critical in preventing extinctions”.
Some people would say that it is better to let nature run its course. However, this is already out the window, because it is humans who introduced cats that are not threatening a number of different species. In fact, alien species, especially mammalian predators, are the ones to be blamed for the extinction of the most animals.
Source: University of Queensland