Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:4:p17
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 17/80)
Character Range: 49670–52635

the predation burden from cats. For example, species with faster reproductive rates may be able to compensate for the predation toll from cats more readily than species with lower reproductive outputs.

The susceptibility of native species to cat predation is highly variable. Many extinct mammals could not, and some extant threatened mammals cannot, co-exist with even low densities of cats; and extant species that are extremely cat-susceptible are now found only in small areas (islands and mainland fenced exclosures) where cats are absent. At the other extreme, the population viability of some native species is not, or is minimally, affected by the presence of cats. Identifying where native species fall along this continuum is critical for shaping the cat management actions necessary to prevent declines and extinctions. For example, species that are most cat-susceptible can survive only if cats are absent, whereas less cat-susceptible species may thrive with less intensive cat control, or even if habitat quality is improved enough so that cat impacts are reduced or compensated for.

This threat abatement plan uses the categories of predator susceptibility defined by Radford et al. (2018) (Table 1) as a basis for identifying and organising the levels of cat control and management needed to ensure the persistence and viability of native species threatened by cats. In this plan, the cat-susceptibility of all native non-marine mammals and reptiles, land-birds and seabirds has been categorised according to this schema, using information available in species recovery plans and conservation advices, action plans, expert assessment of threats to vertebrates, and a series of papers that quantified dietary information and the likelihood of being killed or consumed by a cat. The list of mammal, reptile, land bird and seabird species considered moderately, highly or extremely susceptible to cat predation is given in Appendix 2; and details on the methods for categorising, and the current extent of protection against cats for the most cat-susceptible species, are provided in the background document. Note that there may be species (such as some invertebrates) for which the available evidence is insufficient to assess population-level susceptibility to cat predation.

Overall, 9 species of mammals, 1 species of land-bird and 9 species of seabird are extremely susceptible to cat predation; and 338 mammal, 3 land-bird, 3 seabird, and 4 reptile species are highly susceptible to cat predation. Removing cat impacts is crucial for preventing declines and extinctions in these species.

Many of the 21 mammal species identified as priorities in the Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032 are recognised as being extremely or highly susceptible to predation by cats (and/or in some cases, by foxes). These include the chuditch (western quoll) Dasyurus geoffroii, eastern quoll D. viverrinus, northern quoll D. hallucatus, numbat Myrmecobius