首页  | 新闻播报

Cats blamed for decline of marsupials

中国日报网 2014-05-08 10:03

分享到微信

Get Flash Player

Download

Small, furry marsupials such as the bandicoot, quoll and tree possum are in dramatic decline in northern Australia, and feral cats could be the cause, according to an analysis reported on Wednesday.

Chris Johnson, a wildlife conservation professor from the University of Tasmania, said small mammal species were at risk of extinction across the continent, but the changes in the north were marked.

"There's a pretty clear picture, and it shows that lots of species have declined dramatically," Johnson said.

"Where we can infer the timing of decline, it's been fairly recent. And there are now large areas where small mammals are either very rare or don't exist, but the habitat looks like it should support small mammals."

Johnson said that while scientists discussed the changes as a "new wave of decline", it was not clear how sudden it was except that it became very noticeable in the early 1990s, particularly in places such as Kakadu National Park, a conservation area in the Northern Territory.

About 20 small native mammals have disappeared from Kakadu in recent decades, including ratlike bandicoots, northern quolls, tree possums, and the weasel like phascogale, he said, adding that similar declines had occurred elsewhere.

A new analysis from a database of current mammal populations reported to a meeting of experts in Canberra on Wednesday has allowed researchers to compare the current wave of extinction across different species with those in the past, Johnson said, adding that it revealed some common factors.

"First, the extinctions are occurring mainly in ground-dwelling animals of small body size which live in open, dry habitat. This points the finger of suspicion strongly at an introduced predator – the cat," he said.

"We have seen similar extinction patterns driven by predators like foxes in southern Australia, so the big question was: Is history repeating itself, or is it something new?"

He said the declines were in species eaten by cats, an animal believed to have been introduced with European settlement in the late 1700s.

"Where there are no cats, there have been no declines," he said.

He said because cats had been around for so long and the declines were more recent, the question was what had changed to make them such a damaging predator.

Johnson said the use of fire by cattle farmers seemed to have played a role, given there had been no significant land clearing or evidence of disease in northern Australia.

"It is probably no one thing, but the data point to a combination of several effects - all of which tend to favor the hunting style adopted by cats, which places small ground-dwelling animals at greater risk," he said.

(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)

 

About the broadcaster:

Lance Crayon is a videographer and editor with China Daily. Since living in Beijing he has worked for China Radio International (CRI) and Global Times. Before moving to China he worked in the film industry in Los Angeles as a talent agent and producer. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Arlington.

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
人气排行
中国日报网 英语点津微信
中国日报网 双语小程序