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Reptiles are losing more than just their tails to cats. In fact, new research shows that entire reptile populations may be dropping due to the presence of invasive felines.
Research has shown that domestic cats and their feral counterparts are capable of huge impacts to bird populations—one house cat and its offspring were purportedly all it took to push a bird that lived only on Stephens Island in New Zealand into extinction.
But a study published recently in Biological Conservation and conducted in Australia shows that reptile populations may also suffer from cat predation. (Watch: Kitty-cams reveal what cats prey upon.)
To get a picture of what a landscape free of cats would mean for reptiles, researchers created cat-free zones for two years in Kakadu National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The researchers fenced some areas and left others of equal size open. They placed camera traps around the fenced plots to make sure cats weren’t getting in, and had to remove only one feline intruder during the experiment. Meanwhile, cats were detected in each of the unfenced...
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