You’ve probably heard some of the hubbub surrounding feral
cats in Australia, and more specifically what to do about them. The feral cats
(domestic cats that live independently from humans) are considered an invasive
species there and are said to pose a threat to native populations of birds and
small mammals. Earlier this year, the government announced a plan to eliminate (i.e., kill) as many as 20 million of these
cats in the next five years. But where did these cats come from originally, and
when did they arrive? The answer to that second question in particular can “provide
an important timeframe for the impact of feral cats on native species in
Australia,” according to a study published today in BMC Evolutionary Biology.
The exact origins of the Australian cats hasn’t really been
known before now: different theories have claimed they could have come on the
ships of Europeans in the late 1700s, or with Malaysian trepangers (people
fishing for sea cucumbers) in the mid-1600s, or even at the same time as the
dingo, around 4,500 years ago. The new study analyzed genetic information from over
250 cats from the Australian mainland, several islands, Southeast Asia, and
Europe to determine where the cats likely originated. The results: Australian
feral cats are descendants of cats that arrived on European ships in the 1800s.
That finding supports the theory that feral cats in
Australia originated in “Britain and other Western and Central European
locations” and that there were many arrivals of cats in coastal areas
throughout the nineteenth century. No evidence was found of cats being brought
by Malaysian trepangers, although some cats from Asia may have arrived after
the European cats.
This study is interesting to many because its conclusions
can be used to show the effects of feral cats on native wildlife, but it is
interesting to us because it further shows how humans tend to take cats with
them wherever they go. Expect to read more about this in future posts!
Source
Koch et al., 2015, “A Voyage to Terra Australis: Human-Mediated Dispersal of Cats,” BMC Evolutionary Biology.
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