Journal article
Top-down control of species distributions: feral cats driving the regional extinction of a threatened rodent in northern Australia
HF Davies, MA McCarthy, RSC Firth, JCZ Woinarski, GR Gillespie, AN Andersen, HM Geyle, E Nicholson, BP Murphy
Diversity and Distributions | WILEY | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12522
Abstract
Aim: To investigate whether feral cats influence the distribution of Australia's largest remnant population of the threatened brush-tailed rabbit-rat Conilurus penicillatus and examine whether they influenced the extinction probability of C. penicillatus over a 15-year period (2000–2015). Location: Melville Island, northern Australia. Methods: In 2015, small mammal surveys were conducted at 88 sites across Melville Island, 86 of which had previously been surveyed in 2000–2002. We used single-season occupancy models to investigate correlates of the current distribution of C. penicillatus and dynamic occupancy models to investigate correlates of C. penicillatus local extinction. Results: Our r..
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Awarded by Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
Funding Acknowledgements
We would first like to thank the Tiwi Land Council and the Tiwi traditional owners for their ongoing support of scientific research on their land. We also acknowledge the amazing logistical and field assistance provided by Willy Rioli, Jose Puruntatameri, Willy Roberts, Colin Kerinauia, Vivian Kerinauia, Kim Brooks, Casey Visintin, Haime Heiniger, Fin Roberts, John van Osta, Phoebe Burns, Amelie Corriveau, Chris Davies and Tiwi College staff and students. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE130100434), Hermon Slade Foundation, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management, National Environmental Science Programme's Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Paddy Pallin Foundation and Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment.