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Elsa Bonnaud (Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France) and colleagues, writing in the journal Ibis, report on the devastating effects of feral Domestic Cats Felis silvestris catus on an island population of the Near Threatened Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan in the French Mediterranean.  The paper says: "[t]he high impact of cat predation supports the urgent need to eradicate feral cats from this major Yelkouan Shearwater breeding site."

The paper's abstract follows:

"Feral cats are considered to be one of the main harmful invasive species for island species. Adult shearwaters are highly vulnerable to predation by cats. The population of the Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan, a species endemic to the Mediterranean, is predicted to decline, leaving only a few large breeding colonies, due to the invasion of cats. The impact of cats on the Shearwater population of Le Levant Island, one of the major breeding sites for this species, was evaluated by studying cat diet over a 2-year period. The predation rate obtained was then included in a Shearwater demographic model. Cats preyed upon rabbits, rats and Shearwaters, with a peak of predation on Shearwaters immediately upon their arrival at the colony. Cat predation was heavy and responsible for the yearly death of about 810-3241 birds. This could lead to the extinction of the Le Levant colony within the next four decades and perhaps within just a few years. Cat predation on prospecting individuals, a parameter essential to assess the real impact of predation, may not have an immediate effect on the Shearwater breeding population but can accelerate population extinction. Cat predation must be reduced or removed to prevent the extinction of one of the most important breeding sites for this species."

Yelkouan Shearwater.  Photograph by Alex Olle

Selected References:

Bonnaud, E., Berger, G., Bourgeois, K., Legrand, J. & Vidal, E. 2012.  Predation by cats could lead to the extinction of the Mediterranean endemic Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan at a major breeding site.  Ibis doi: 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2012.01228.x.

Manuel Nogales, M., Martín, A., Tershy, B.R., Donlan, C.J., Veitch, D., Puerta, N., Wood, B. & Alonso, J. 2004.  A review of feral cat eradication on islands.  Conservation Biology 18: 310-319.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 April 2012