Estimating feral cat densities in subtropical rainforest
Dr. Darren McHugh led an extensive field project employing camera traps in Border Ranges National Park—a large World Heritage listed subtropical rainforest reserve in northeast New South Wales, Australia—to estimate the density of feral cats (Felis catus). Feral cats are a leading cause of species decline throughout Australia, particularly for mammals which in Australia experience the highest extinction rates globally. Unfortunately, the research revealed that cat densities were more than triple the national average, a surprising result in light of popular beliefs about rainforest cat populations.
Dr. Matthijs Hollanders from Quantecol worked alongside Dr. Ben Augustine to fit his state-of-the-art spatial mark-recapture model that incorporates detections that could not be identified to individuals. Since the majority of cats detected on cameras could not be individually assigned due to their similar pelage types, being able to still incorporate these observations into the analysis increases the statistical power and yields improved estimates of abundance.
The work was published today as an Open Access article in Wildlife Research and presents the most thorough assessment of cat densities in Australian rainforests to date.
