Annotated Bibliography Template
Name: Jessica McCourt Student No: c3269411
TOPIC
What are the impacts of feral cats, Felis catus, on Australian biodiversity?
INTRODUCTION
Write in full, using proper sentences and include in-text references.
Approximately 200 words, excluding references.
Felis catus the domestic cat, an introduced species as a direct result of the human population is responsible for 26% of the extinction of the total population of Birds, mammals, and reptiles worldwide. This has severe implications and a threat to Australian Biodiversity. The major impact suffered as a result of the Felis catus on Australian Biodiversity is the decline and in some cases extinction of mammals. Predation being responsible for the impact on
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Source Type: Academic book
Citation Doherty, T., Dickman, C., Johnson, C., Legge, S., Ritchie, E. and Woinarski, J. (2016). Impacts and management of feral cats Felis catus in Australia. Mammal Review, 47(2), pp.83-97.
Content Summary This article reviews the impacts and management of feral cats Felis catus in Australia. It provides information on the impacts of biodiversity and the main factors responsible including; predation, competition and disease transmission. It also discusses the impacts on agriculture, history and distribution and how the feral cat was introduced, the areas of land surface the feral cat is now established in.
The management and control measures both lethal and non-lethal that have been put in place and priorities for future management and research. Their research focuses on a wide variety of factors that contribute to providing a well-informed understanding and providing an overall picture of the impacts that are caused by the feral cat on Australian
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It discusses the need for control methods to counteract the impacts of the feral cat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the feral cat to be among one of the worst invasive species. The methods used to control the impacts of the feral cat such as shooting, trapping, baiting are all lethal methods being described as
A species in particular that I have researched is the red fox or Vulpes vulpes as it is known in the scientific community. The animal is native to North America, Asia and Europe where they thrive in habitats ranging from temperate deserts to boreal forests, but its range spans the entire globe (Tesky 1995). The red fox is omnivorous which means that it feeds on animals and plants equally, which, creates impacts on both types of populations within its habitat. What makes the red fox invasive is its introduction to Australia and Eastern parts of the United States, as a result of migration of Europeans t...
Australia is a land of rather extreme weather conditions and widely diverse climates that force the vegetation living there to adapt in many interesting ways. Australia is the driest continent, and biomes such as grasslands and savannas are prime sources of widespread catastrophic fires. The plants that grow in the vast arid and semi-arid regions of Australia are prone to fires simply because of the desert climates that they grow in. High temperatures combined with low fuel moisture contents, little humidity and drying winds that sweep across the landscape encourage many of the plants living in these areas to burst into flames at fairly frequent intervals. Serotinous cones, protective bark, intricate underground recovery systems, unique seed distributions and even the necessity of fire for reproduction are just some of the amazing ways that the major plant families which grow in these fire-prone areas have learned to adapt to their environments.
Brumbies are known as the feral horses that inhabit Australia- mostly throughout the Northern Territory, Queensland and scattered centrally in Western Australia. Some small mobs live within Victoria and New South Wales, but none as vast or dense in population. These horses influence the natural habitat in many ways- they reduce vegetation growth, cause soil erosion and impact upon other animals living within the ecosystem. They are seen as pests to national parks, and essentially, this is the reason for their culling- they cause more damage than they are worth. The only positive aspect a brumby herd will impose is that they maintain walking and driving tracks throughout state parks.
Weeks, P., & Packard, J. (2009). Feral hogs: Invasive species or nature. Human Organization, 68(3), 280-292. Retrieved from http://wk4ky4tk9h.scholar.serialssolutions.com.library.esc.edu/?sid=google&auinit=P&aulast=Weeks&atitle=Feral Hogs: Invasive Species or Nature's Bounty?&title=Human organization&volume=68&issue=3&date=2009&spage=280&issn=0018-7259
Any method of control must be weighed for its effectiveness, feasibility and secondary impact making management of feral deer an ongoing and complex
Slowly, the disruption of these delicate balances are taking their toll on the native habitats and transforming small temporary changes into permanent problems. The area of environmental modification that will be emphasized in this paper is the introduction of non-native species to new habitats and the resulting effects on that habitat; specifically, the introduction of the European Rabbit to Australia.
However, due to backlash from animal activist communities, the BLM is inconclusive on using lethal programs. One proposed solution would be to use contraceptives to add to the overproduction of feral horses. The contraceptive would be used in the form of darts that will help keep population down by decreasing the reproductive hormones in male horses. Using contraceptives would allow for a more humane regulating horse population.
Zipkin, Elise F., Kraft, Clifford E., Cooch, Evan G., and Sullivan, Patrick J., “When Can Efforts to Control Nuisance and Invasive Species Backfire?,” Ecological Applications, Vol. 19, No. 6 (2009): 1585-1595, accessed October 11, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40346271.
Mason, Robert A. B. "Wild Mammals In Captivity: Principles And Techniques For Zoo Management, 2Nd Edition." Austral Ecology38.8 (2013): e26. Environment Index. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Invasive species, (also known as invasive alien species or simply alien species) are defined as any organism (plant, animal, pathogen, or other living thing) that is alien (non-native) to an ecosystem, which can cause adverse economical, ecological, or health effects to native species and/or humans. The roots of these problems all stem from the massive negative ecological impact these organisms are having on the environment (CBD, 2009). For all animal extinctions where the cause is known since the 1600’s, invasive alien species have been a contributing factor 40% of the time (CBD, 2006); the second most contributing factor to extinctions after loss of habitat (GC, 2013). By eliminating native species through competition for resources, predation, and transmittal of disease, invasive species continue to reduce biodiversity in almost all ecosystems around the world (CBD, 2009). In the future, this problem may worsen, and if no action is taken, could lead to a cascading ecological problem so large that whole communities or even ecosystems could collapse.
Many people don’t spay or neuter their pets, especially cats. There are a lot of benefits and yet according to The Humane Society of the United States, six to eight million cats enter the shelters each year and while three to four million are adopted out, another three to four million are killed. “An unsprayed female cats, her mate and all of their offspring producing just 2 litters per year (the average is 3-4), with just 2.8 surviving kittens per litter can total to 66,088 cats in just 6 years” (Goldstein & O’Keefe 4).
"How Zoos Are Saving Our Animals." – Features – ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.
One of the big causes of extinction or the endangerment of species is foreign species entering a habitat. This species that are not native to the land can disrupt the food web in that community. These species take control of the food web and endanger some of the other species. The native species become endangered and over the course of many years they either adapt to their new way or life, the foreign predator leaves or is killed off due to the different environment, or the species is killed off and becomes extinct. Organizations like the “World Wild Li...
In Tai Wan, TNR was carried out in some districts. The Life Conservationist Association reports that the number of stray animals decrease from 13,281 to 9,515 (nearly 25%) during 2009and 2010. This shows the efficiency of TNR in controlling the population of stray cats. Therefore, by considering the environment, society, political and the welfare of the animals, TNR is the most effective and humane way to solve the problem of overcrowded population of stray cats.
Humans and other vertebrates have been in a dynamic relationship thousands of years. Animals have been used in many aspects of human lives various ways, directly for instance as, farm animals, companion animals, animals in entertainment industries. Animals have also been associated with humans indirectly such as in medical research. In Canada, human and non-human animals interactions do fall under these categories, Farm animals comprise of largest group, there are between 100 million to 1 billion animals in this category. Followed by companion animals, this group comprises between 10 million to 100 million animals. Third category is consists of animals that are used in science has a range of 1 million to 10 million. Last and smallest category is of captive wild animals for entertainment which has less than 1 million animals. In following paragraphs will provide more details about the each category’s animal use in Canada in past recent years.