Diets of mammalian carnivores in the deserts of north-eastern South Australia

Title
Diets of mammalian carnivores in the deserts of north-eastern South Australia
Publication Date
2021-05
Author(s)
Vernes, Karl
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1635-9950
Email: kvernes@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:kvernes
Jackson, Stephen M
Elliott, Todd F
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9304-7040
Email: tellio20@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:tellio20
Tischler, Max
Harper, Andrew
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Academic Press
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1016/j.jaridenv.2020.104377
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/30476
Abstract
We studied diets of feral cats (Felis catus), dingoes (Canis familiaris) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in desert environments in north-eastern South Australia by analysing prey remains in opportunistically-collected scats. Four major landscapes were sampled (Simpson Desert, Sturt Stony Desert, Strzelecki Desert - Cooper Creek and Diamantina River) which yielded 238 cat scats, 298 dingo scats and ten fox scats. There was some overlap in prey eaten by cats and dingoes, but their diets were significantly different because cats typically ate small prey such as small mammals, small lizards and birds, while dingoes ate larger prey like domestic cattle, kangaroos and large reptiles. The few fox scats collected suggested fox diets were more similar to cat than dingo diets. Scat composition also differed significantly between landscapes irrespective of predator, with landscapes differing both in diversity and relative abundances of prey consumed. We detected several species in scats that are threatened with extinction either nationally (dusky hopping mouse, Notomys fuscus, and crest-tailed mulgara, Dasycercus cristicauda) or regionally (desert mouse, Pseudomys desertor, and long-haired rat, Rattus villosissimus), adding valuable knowledge to the distribution of these mammals and demonstrating the value of predator scat analyses in mammal surveys of Australian deserts.
Link
Citation
Journal of Arid Environments, v.188, p. 1-8
ISSN
1095-922X
0140-1963
Start page
1
End page
8

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