Cats in Australia

Across the world, cats are loved as pets or are kept or tolerated for their role in controlling some animal pests. But cats, both pets and feral, also kill many native animals and this toll can be enormous. Cats have been remarkably successful in Australia, spreading pervasively across the continent and many islands, occurring in all environments, and proving to be adept and adaptable hunters. A large proportion of Australia’s distinctive fauna is threatened and recent research highlights the significant role that cats play in the decline and extinction of native species.

Cats in Australia brings this research together, documenting the extent to which cats have subverted, and are continuing to subvert, Australia’s biodiversity. But the book does much more than spotlight the impacts of cats on Australian nature. It describes the origins of cats and their global spread, their long-standing and varying relationship with people, their global impacts and their ecology. It also seeks to describe the challenge of managing cats, and the options available to constrain their impacts.

Features

• While showing respect to the remarkable character of the cat, this book provides the first comprehensive documentation of their ongoing severe impacts on Australia’s biodiversity.
• Explores the cat’s origins, natural history and global spread, as well as its impacts on the world’s biodiversity, the economy and human health.
• Synthesises recent research on the ecology and impacts of cats, as well as the rapidly evolving legal, policy and management challenges and responses to the threat that cats pose to biodiversity.
• Helps community members, councils and governments, landholders, conservationists and animal welfare advocates to establish more effective management responses to cats.